Electrochemical assessment of calcium carbonate deposition using a rotating disc electrode (RDE)

An electrochemically-based technique, which uses assessment of the oxygen r eduction reaction at a rotating disc electrode, has been devised which show s promise as a method for studying nucleation and growth of mineral scale a t a solid surface. In this paper the background and development of the tech nique are described for the study of deposition of CaCO3 from a supersatura ted solution. Results are presented which illustrate the good correlation b etween the surface coverage predicted by electrochemical analysis and the a ctual coverage quantified by image analysis. The potential of this techniqu e for mechanistic studies of surface scaling and for assessment of inhibito rs is discussed.