A Comparative Study of the Mott-Schottky Behavior of Oxide Films on Stainless Steels in Ionic Liquids and in Aqueous Solutions

Abstract

The semiconducting properties of passive films formed on AISI304 steel, thermally at 400ºC or anodically in a borate buffer solution, were comparatively studied by capacitance measurements and the usual Mott-Shottky (MS) approach in an aqueous borate buffer solution of pH 9.2 and in BMMITFSI, a room temperature ionic liquid. This ionic liquid was used due to its wide electrochemical window of circa 4.3 V, enabling the verification of the accuracy of the MS approach. Two regions corresponding to p and n-type semiconduction were observed in both electrolytes, but calculated dopant concentrations were not always equal. In the ionic liquid a second deeper donor level was always present, which must be further investigated.