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Corrosion Science, Vol. 39, No. 8, pp.

1499-1500, 1997
e 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd
Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved
0010-938X/97 %17.00+0.00

Pergamon

PII: S001&938X(97)000964

BOOK REVIEW
The Iron Oxides:
U. Schwertmann.

Structure, Properties, Reactions, Occurrence and Uses. R. M. Cornell and


573 pp. VCH, Weinheim and New York, 1996. ISBN: 3-527-28576-8.

This beautifully
produced book is a mine of information
on the oxides of iron. It covers
almost everything one would want to know about iron oxides which is actually known. Its
elegant presentation
includes at the beginning a series of colour photographs
of amazing
breadth, ranging from a colour catalogue
of all the stable oxides through pictures of
pigment factories and painted materials to a picture of the Mars surface from the Viking
Lander 1. There is nothing more likely to put one in a good mood and distract ones attention
from the direct working application
of the book, than coming accross this photo gallery and
simply browsing.
From occurrence and description,
through structure, analysis, synthesis, and properties,
its all there, each oxide considered separately as well as in relation to others. The properties
too, are summarised
extensively: chemical, physical and electrical, as well as appearance.
After a brief introduction,
several chapters are devoted to crystal structure and morphology.
Each oxide is dealt with separately with careful attention
to detail, both descriptive and
quantitative.
These sections are richly depicted
with model structures
and electron
micrographs,
including
some differences
induced by synthetic
method or laboratory
processing. Surface area, porosity and fractality are dealt with next, followed by electrical,
electronic and magnetic properties.
A wide range characterisation
techniques is given in
Chapter 9 with useful associated data, ranging from colour comparisons
to techniques such
as Mdssbauer
and Extended X-ray Absorption
Fine Structure. Although the techniques
themselves are not treated in detail, the results pertaining
to specific oxides are described
fully. The X-ray powder diffraction
data for many oxides are fully tabulated,
including
those describing the so-called green rusts and Fe(OH)2, an oxide not occurring in nature.
The thermodynamics
of the systems are treated perhaps a little too briefly; alas there are
no Pourbaix diagrams, although Pourbaix has been given mention. Perhaps too, it would
have been useful to provide the temperature
dependencies
of some of the standard
thermodynamic
functions,
since it is so often that one requires these, as a corrosionist
at
least-I
guess no such book can be perfect.
It must have been difficult in preparation
of a book such as this to know how far to go
into the basic theory and background
to the subject before describing the associated iron
oxide characteristics.
This is certainly reflected in the thermodynamics
section where the
background
is rather trivial and would perhaps have better been simply a definition of
symbols. The authors are of course forgiven for this. Had they given a detailed background
to each and every subject they have discussed, the book would have been very much largersuch is the wide range of topics which they have covered for the oxides of iron-and
this
excellent work could have suffered lack of focus as a consequence.
This chemistry of the iron oxides is dealt with in much detail, with many tables of data
describing
issues such as solubility
in water as well as presentations
of dissolution
1499

1500

Book review

mechanisms,
surface and colloid chemisty and adsorption processes and mechanisms. These
sections are excellent, with much detail concerning
the general surface characteristics
of
these complex oxides. Isoelectric
points and points of zero charge are described and
tabulated for various solution compositions.
Descriptions of surface charge, colloid stability
and electrophoretic
mobility are preceded by a rather terse treatment of the electrical double
layer. Adsorption
of ions from a more chemical, less electrochemical
angle are given a much
deeper discussion with extensive reference lists and a briefdescription
of adsorption from the
gas phase. Some of the information
that the corrosionist
would want to see are less well
handled, since high temperature
oxidation of ferrous materials depends so strongly on the
composition
of the gaseous environment-adsorption
of H$, SOZ, etc, of interest to the
corrosion community,
has been given the briefest mention. The authors have summarized
the literature on dissolution of iron oxides into aqueous solutions and the effects of solution
composition
in some detail-a
useful collection of information
which makes for interesting
reading. The models presented are not quantitative,
a reflection perhaps of the state of
knowledge of the subject, but much empirical data for individual oxides is provided. From
the corrosion point of view, one would like to correlate this wealth of knowledge to the
behaviour of the passive iron or steel surface, but it is difficult to see that from the work.
Extensive coverage of the formation of iron oxides and transformations
amongst them is
succeeded by a chapter on the natural occurrence of iron oxides in rocks and soils. There is a
chapter in the book devoted to the products of metallic iron corrosion containing
a basic
theory of corrosion, one which few novices would understand,
and few experts appreciate. It
is really rather underdone;
the authors would probably better have concentrated
simply on
the oxides. Even here, poor Pourbaix
is given the briefest mention,
with a schematic
diagram, rather than a Pourbaix original. Sadly, the authors seem not really to appreciate
the tremendously
influential role that the oxides of iron (the subject matter of the book) play
in the corrosion and passivation
of the metal and its alloys, at least not sufficiently to inject
into the book, although
description
of the compositions
of rusts is given. The high
temperature
oxidation
section is also rather weak. The corrosionist
would of course,
probably not wish to consult the book for its descriptions
of corrosion and passivation;
nevertheless, one cannot help but be disappointed
with this section of the otherwise hugely
informative
book. The work concludes with summary chapters on the applications
and
syntheses of iron oxides.
For the corrosion scientist, this book is a useful reference to the current knowledge of the
oxides of iron. It is not a corrosion book, not even a corrosion-of-iron
book, and less still, a
corrosion-of-steels
book. That is not a criticism. but a comment;
the authors are to be
congratulated
on the high quality and usefulness of their work.
Perhaps a criticism of the style of the work is that it is written as a description
of the
literature, rather than in text-book style; whilst appropriate
to a reference book, reading
becomes a little less interesting than could otherwise be the case, probably more a reflection
of the type of work, rather than the style of work. The book is richly referenced throughout,
and conveniently
concludes with the alphabetical
listing of the references (some 61 pages of
them!), spanning decades of published work. Each reference includes the title of the article,
making the literature so much more accessible for the browser and literature surveyor alike.
The book is well produced on good quality paper and appears to be strongly bound. For
those concerned with the oxides of iron, it is probably the best summary available.
G. T. Burstein

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