Mid-November marks Ohio University's International Education Week, and its Student Global Research Symposium. In 2022, ICMT PhD student Yi He took first place in its associated 3-Minute Thesis competition. This year, ICMT's Shrirang Deshmukh (SD) repeated the win taking the $500 prize, presenting on "The Effect of Oxygen on Corrosion in the Oil and Gas Industry". He narrowly beat out fellow finalist and ICMT PhD student Zhuldyz Zhigulina, who presented on "Insight into High Temperature CO₂/H₂S Corrosion of Mild Steel". This is a terrific achievement for both, and recognition of ICMT research in the broader OHIO community.

The 2023 Fall meeting of the CC JIP was held on October 24-26 at ICMT in Athens, OH. In attendance were 14 representatives from 9 of our current sponsoring companies while more representatives from our other sponsoring companies joined us in real time online. Over the 2 ½ day event, our students and staff provided 16 presentations for review and discussion. An update to MULTICORP V6.0 was released prior to this meeting and was reviewed on Thursday after the member's meeting. As usual, many great in-depth discussions occurred during the meeting with positive feedback for the current research directions. The photo below shows attendees from this event:

Ohio University President Lori Stewart Gonzalez, Provost Elizabeth Sayrs, and Russ College of Engineering & Technology Dean Patrick Fox made a combined visit to our laboratory. They learned about the three-decade history behind ICMT, our ongoing activities, and future plans. They then toured the laboratory floor, were shown key items of equipment employed in corrosion testing. Our PhD students Shrirang Deshmukh, Adam Cutright, Ishan Patel, Neda Norooziasl, Kamila Turganova, Zhuldyz Zhigulina, Yi He, and Martin Colahan showcased their research in a poster format, demonstrating the diversity of our research activities. University photographer Eli Burris cataloged the visit, and we thank him for the pictures below.

PhD student Payman Sharifi Abdar has successfully defended his dissertation research, "Mechanism and Modeling of Galvanic Corrosion between Mild Steel and Iron Sulfides in Acidic Solutions". Research within ICMT previously demonstrated that formation of different types of iron sulfides as corrosion products were a main culprit in localized attack, due to their wide-ranging physicochemical properties. Galvanic coupling between such iron sulfide layers and mild steel was suspected to be associated with the observed localized attack. The two types of iron sulfides investigated by Payman, pyrite and pyrrhotite, were shown to produce different galvanic corrosion due to their distinct electrochemical behaviors. To further elucidate the mechanism of the impact of iron sulfide type, the cathodic behavior of pyrite and pyrrhotite was systematically studied using a rotating disk electrode system. The results revealed that pyrrhotite has significantly higher cathodic current than pyrite. This difference originates from different cathodic reactions occurring at the surface of these iron sulfides. Manuscripts are in preparation relating to his findings. He has previously published in Electrochimica Acta and Analytical Methods. He has been a regular attendee at NACE and AMPP conferences, receiving 2^nd place in the Mars Fontana Category for his research poster at CORROSION 2021. Payman's PhD advisor was University Distinguished Professor, and ICMT Director, Srdjan Nesic. He recently started a post-doctoral researcher position in the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, with an electrocatalysis research focus.

ICMT PhD student Mohiedin Bagheri has successfully defended his dissertation research, "Mechanism of Anodic Dissolution of Iron and Steel in CO₂ Environments". His research focus was the mechanistic investigation of the multistep reaction that occurs during CO₂ corrosion. After critical review of the fundamental theories underpinning the oxidative dissolution reaction, he developed a simpler narrative that was successfully applied in corrosion modelling. Furthermore, has research yielded important insights into how specific environmental factors (e.g., pH, dissolved CO₂, temperature, steel type, etc.) can mechanistically impact kinetics of elementary steps, and ultimately the overall reaction of iron dissolution. His advisor was Professor Srdjan Nesic, his committee members were Professor Howard Dewald, Associate Professor Katherine Cimatu, Associate Professor Marc Singer and Research Associate Professor Yoon-Seok Choi. Mohiedin holds a MS degree in Chemical Engineering, also from OHIO, as well as BSc and MSc degrees in Materials Science & Engineering from Sharif University of Technology. He has published in the peer reviewed journals Advanced Materials, Materials & Design, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Materials Science & Engineering, Australian Journal of Chemistry, Electrochimica Acta, and Analytical Methods. He will be joining OLI as an Electrolyte/Corrosion Simulation Specialist.

The Russ Outstanding Research Paper Award recognizes excellence in research and scholarship exhibited by the faculty of Russ College and is awarded by recognition from a committee consisting of previous award recipients. (For more information click here.)
The team chosen for the award at the Institute for Corrosion and Multiphase Technology focused their efforts on modeling experimental data obtained from a series of experiments on corrosion inhibition of mild steel in CO₂ saturated aqueous solutions. Regression analysis was performed using different ML algorithms (Artificial Neural Network, Random Forest, Support Vector Machines, and K Nearest Neighbors) to model experimental data of time-varying corrosion rates of mild steel specimens when corrosion inhibitors were added to the system in different concentrations and dose schedules and with and without pre-corrosion. One of the main conclusions was that the sensitivity of corrosion rates to changes in the environmental variables could be well-predicted by the trained RF model, which can eliminate the need to perform extensive experiments for different solution conditions in the lab. The paper can be found here.

Every Spring semester, Ohio University stages its Student Research and Creative Activity Expo. As usual, ICMT had multiple graduate students showcasing their research on the floor of our campus’s Convocation Center.

Presenting his poster on Inhibitor Adsorption Characterized using Quartz Crystal Microbalance, Kushal Singla took 1^st place in the Special Session Awards conferred by the University International Council. Yi He also took 1^st place for Effect of Intermittent Wetting on Corrosion Inhibition in Oil/Water Systems with the Best Content Award by the Graduate Student Senate.

Adam Cutright took 2^nd place in ChemBioEng2 with Impact on Corrosion and Corrosion Product Layers by Trace Concentrations of H₂S, Martin Colahan took 2^nd place in ChemBioEng1 on Development of a Downhole Corrosion Modeling Software, and Shrirang Deshmukh also took 2^nd with Anomalies Associated with the Oxygen Reduction Reaction.

The Expo is an excellent event where undergraduate and graduate students can also network, see each other’s research, and exchange ideas. A highlight in OHIO’s calendar!

Hearty congratulations to Huiru Wang upon her selection for the Gustavus Edward and Gladys V. Smith Memorial Engineering Award, recognizing her as the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering's outstanding PhD student. Along with a monetary component, she will be presented with a plaque for the award at the Russ College 2022-2023 Student Awards Ceremony and luncheon on April 22 from 11:00am to 3:00pm at the Ridges Auditorium, hosted by the Russ College chapter of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society.

As is our norm, ICMT sent a healthy contingent to the AMPP Annual Conference in Denver. In total, 18 presentations were made and 17 posters displayed. Symposia participated in covered Corrosion Control with Inhibition, Progress in Laboratory Testing of Corrosion Inhibitors, Sweet and Sour Corrosion, VCI Applications, Corrosion in Supercritical Systems, Machine Learning, Mechanisms of Localized Corrosion, Refining Industry Corrosion, RIP, and Electrochemical Techniques. ICMT PhD students were also recognized by AMPP. Sahithi Ayyagari and Kushal Singla each received the Graduate Student Book Award, with Sahithi also receiving the Oliver Moghissi Memorial Scholarship. Kushal along with Neda Norooziasl were also selected for the AMPP Member Leadership Development Program. Recent ICMT research scholar Bernardo Santos, who we count as one of our own, was awarded the AMPP Diversity and Inclusion Grant. Internal planning is already underway for our participation in the 2024 AMPP Annual Conference in New Orleans.

During their research at Université PSL and Sorbonne Université, recent ICMT PhD Huiru Wang and current post-doc Luntao Wang collaborated on a surface analysis investigation that is now published in Corrosion Science, "Adsorption mechanism of quaternary ammonium corrosion inhibitor on carbon steel surface using ToF-SIMS and XPS". In their groundbreaking work, they combined Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to characterize adsorption phenomena associated with the corrosion inhibitor molecule tetradecylbenzyldimethylammonium on a mild steel surface. They demonstrated that the adsorbed inhibitor surface coverage strongly depends on immersion time and inhibitor concentration, with a maximum as well as uniform coverage is found for sufficiently long exposure times at a critical inhibitor concentration of ca. 25 ppmw. The uniform adsorbed inhibitor layer formed on the surface was determined to mitigate the formation of iron chloride/hydroxide intermediates, thus enhancing the corrosion protection of carbon steel in aggressive environments. The manuscript can be accessed here: (ScienceDirect.com).

November saw ICMT students participate in two Three Minute Thesis, also known as 3MT, contests. As the name suggests, students have a maximum of 3 minutes to concisely present their work to a general audience. Presenting on "Understanding and Enhancing Corrosion Inhibition" Yi He won the university-wide 3MT contest that occurred during OHIO's International Education Week Global Research Symposium, placing ahead of finalists from Scripps College of Communication and the Honors Tutorial College. Adam Cutright prevailed in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering's own 3MT contest presenting on "Impact of Souring on Corrosion Product Layers", with Yi placing third. Yi is advised by Associate Professor Marc Singer and Adam by Research Professor David Young. In response to the news, Center Director Prof. Srdjan Nesic stated, "Their success is evidence of the strong emphasis on developing communication skills - a key objective sought for everyone working in ICMT. This is a major feather in their cap."

More information on the IEW competition, and the 3MT format, can be accessed here (ohio.edu).

Huiru Wang is the latest ICMT student to defend her PhD. Her dissertation title is, "Electrochemical Atomic Force Microscopy and Spectroscopic Characterization of Amphiphilic Surfactant Molecules as Corrosion Inhibitors", and much of her research was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Alain Pailleret of France's Sorbonne University in Paris. The main focus of her research was Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) investigation of how a quaternary ammonium corrosion inhibitor model compound would adsorb on mica, then relate the observed phenomena to a ferritic-pearlitic steel. In baseline experiments she also applied AFM to characterize steel surfaces during corrosion, extracting corrosion rate data which matched values obtained by electrochemical techniques. She complemented her AFM-based research by conducting Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) to independently identify inhibitor adsorption properties as well as electrochemical reaction mechanisms, comparing them with her AFM findings. She will continue her research with ICMT into 2023. Her advisor is Center Director Prof. Srdjan Nesic.

On November 1st Center Director Srdjan Nesic delivered his Distinguished Professor lecture in Ohio University's Baker Center Ballroom. The Distinguished Professor Award is the highest level of faculty recognition that can be achieved at Ohio University. In his lecture, Prof. Nesic described his decision to come to Athens, corrosion, the evolution of ICMT, and future research directions that will inevitably run in parallel with energy transitions. The OHIO News article on this event as well as video of the complete ceremony and lecture can be accessed at the below links:

Article (ohio.edu).

Video (youtube.com).

The 2022 Fall meeting of the CC JIP was held on October 25-27 at the ICMT in Athens, OH. In attendance were 10 representatives from 8 of our current sponsoring companies while representatives from our other sponsoring companies joined us for most of the meeting in real time online. Over the 2 ½ day event, our graduate students and staff provided 18 presentations for review and discussion. With our current release of MULTICORP V6.0 and the hard work provided by the students and staff to provide this mini-conference for our sponsors, we had great in-depth discussions and very positive feedback for the current research directions. The photo below shows all attendees from this event:

Ohio University will honor Distinguished Professor Srdjan Nesic on Tuesday, Nov. 1, during the Distinguished Professor Portrait Unveiling and Lecture.

Students, faculty, staff, and area residents are invited to attend this special event in the Baker University Center Ballroom, beginning at 5:30 p.m. The event will also be livestreamed, with the link available on the Distinguished Professor website. Refreshments will be served beginning at 5 p.m.

For more Information, link to this OHIO News story: Here (ohio.edu)

OHIO ChemE alum Jason Dreher successfully defended his MS research on September 22, his thesis title is "Developing Methods for Proper Determination of Alkalinity in Oil and Gas Field Brine"; his advisor was ICMT's Associate Professor Marc Singer.

The objective of his research was to investigate and develop methodologies to analyze brine chemistry data to extract useful information that can be applied to corrosion modeling. His research covered how to interpret field brine chemistry data, methods to conduct titrations of unknown brines, and the development of a model predicting titration curves for bicarbonate and carboxylate ions. Jason explored the influence of salinity, carboxylate type, sparging with CO₂, and ionic strength on the analysis of titration curves. His work assists corrosion engineers in their interpretation of water chemistry documentation, and their selection of inputs into MULTICORP^TM, as well as other software packages, for corrosion prediction.

Jason is set to join ChampionX as an Offshore Project Engineering Representative to their client base in the Gulf of Mexico, his initial duties will relate to chemical inventory, sample collection, and analytical testing. ICMT wishes him well as he embarks on his career in industry.

ICMT has bade farewell to two of our most recent visiting scientists, Bernardo Santos and Maria Serenario. They have returned to Brazil's Federal University of Sao Joao Del Rei where they will be completing their doctoral research under the supervision of Prof. Alysson Helton Santos Bueno. During their time in ICMT they performed research on corrosion inhibition associated with our ongoing collaboration with TotalEnergies, Bernardo focused on pitting phenomena whereas Maria studied affects of corrosion product layers. They have already presented research posters from this work at the AMPP Annual Conference & Expo 2022, with manuscripts also in preparation for future publication. They have been supervised on a day-to-day basis by Dr Xi Wang and Associate Professor Marc Singer. It has been a pleasure hosting Maria and Bernardo, and we hope their paths continue to cross ICMT's in the coming years.
For more on Bernardo and Maria in ICMT, link to this OHIO News story: Brazilian students exchange culture and corrosion research (ohio.edu)

As part of a scheduled visit to Ohio University, Ohio Congressmen Bill Johnson and Troy Balderson were hosted by ICMT. Their laboratory tour was led by Prof. Nesic, assisted by Associate Professor Marc Singer, Assistant Research Professor Bruce Brown, and Research Professor David Young. The backstory behind ICMT, importance of corrosion, preservation of asset integrity within the energy sector, phenomena involved, economic impact, ICMT capabilities, outreach, and characterization methods were all discussed. A roundtable discussion followed, with topics covered including carbon capture and hydrogen utilization in addition to energy topics. The visit concluded with lunch. Prof. Nesic commented, "It was good to host the Congressmen, and I'm sure we opened their eyes to what we have developed here. Corrosion is ubiquitous, impacts the economy and society in so many ways. I hope their visit will be positive when it comes to their thinking on policy and legislative matters".

Based on the knowledge accumulated in the past decade related to Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) processes, and the identified gaps in knowledge, ICMT has decided to initiate a new program in the form of a Joint Industry Project (JIP) open to any company interested in corrosion issues for CO₂ transmission pipelines and related infrastructure. The overall objective of the proposed CCT JIP project is to identify and quantify the key issues which impact corrosion of materials specifically relating to the integrity of structures for the CO₂ transport pipelines. The result of this research will form a basis for more reliable design and operational decisions related to the adequate utilization of materials in CO₂ transportation. This will involve achieving four goals:

• To understand the effect of a wide range of impurities (O₂, SO₂, NO₂, H₂S, etc.) on the water solubility and the speciation in dense phase CO₂.
• To develop a thermodynamic model for predicting the water solubility and the speciation in dense phase CO₂ in the presence of impurities.
• To determine impact of environmental parameters (pressure, temperature, flow, and impurity types and concentrations), both individually and synergistically, on steel corrosion in dense phase CO2 in the presence of impurities.
• To develop a mechanistic model to predict the corrosion processes in order to help determine facility lifetime.

The target start date for the project is January 2023 and the total duration of the project is 3 years. The JIP will be guided and supervised by Professor Srdjan Nesic (Director ICMT), Dr. Yoon-Seok Choi (Associate Director ICMT) and Professor Sumit Sharma (Associate Professor at the ChBE department).
Please contact Dr. Yoon-Seok Choi (choiy@ohio.edu) for a copy of the proposal or for further information.