Customer Reviews

Principles and Prevention of Corrosion (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm using this book right now in one of my graduate school courses (MY4165 at Michigan Technological University, if anyone cares), and I love it. It reads well, the figures are well-placed, equations are good in number, and the derivations are limited to the most important ones. I would highly recommend this book.

I would insist on a couple of changes in the next edition:

(1) I know that this is common in industry, but for the undergraduate/graduate crowd, the use of customary units is scary and confusing. Furthermore, conversions that are pulled "out of thin air" (such as r(mpy)=1.44*r(mdd)/[specific gravity]) are not appreciated by anyone who wants to use this for scholarly pursuits. They may be better off being stuck in an appendix instead of scattered through the main text, anyway.

(2) This is the big one: PRENTICE HALL SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THIS TEXT'S BINDING AND CONSTRUCTION. This book has one of the poorest-quality bindings that I have ever seen. Our library copy is thoroughly destroyed (I had used it prior to enrolling in the class...now I have my own) and I feel that mine will fall apart by semester's end. Furthermore, some pages are off-center to the point of cutting off text on the left side and the bottom! (Thankfully, this is only a problem in the appendices, although pages are off-center elsewhere.) This is not Prof. Jones' fault, and I hope that he insists on better quality for the third edition.

A suggestion: add a section on physiological corroion of absorbable materials (Mg and Fe, most importantly) in the next edition.

This textbook was my undergraduate text on aqueous corrosion. I would classify it as average:

The writing is somewhat ambiguous in spots. This was reinforced I looked over the book a second time in preparation for PhD qualifying exams.

Problems with it:
1. Inconsistent notation. Many reaction potentials are subscripted as anodic, but the Nernst equation immediately following is written for the cathodic form of the rxn.

2. The treatment of the Nernst equation is lacking in detail, particularly in regard to the choice of reference states. The notion of reaction affinity, or any of the other thermodynamic fundamentals are not exposited.

3. Mixed potential theory is introduced without a clear description/justification for writing all reactions in their cathodic form. I found this confusing the first time through.

4. In the section on high temperature corrosion, the standard defect notation of Kroger and Vink is not used.

5. I found the descriptions of some of the methods for measuring overpotentials less than clear. In general there is a lot of electrochemical characterization that is not covered in any real detail.

Edit: The author is apparently now deceased, so it is doubtful the book will be updated. I wonder in the years since my original review whether there is a better alternative text.

This was a great supplement to a course I took on environmental degradation of materials. It explained complex material very clearly. I would highly recommend it.