Corrosion Science 50 (2008) 24932497

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Corrosion Science
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / c o r s c i

Quantitative analysis of iron oxides using Fourier transform infrared

spectrophotometry
H. Namduri, S. Nasrazadani *
College of Engineering, University of North Texas, Denton, TX-76207, USA

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 14 August 2007
Accepted 17 June 2008
Available online 4 July 2008

Keywords:
A. Steel
B. IR spectroscopy
C. Rust
C. Oxidation
C. Passivity

a b s t r a c t
In this study, a systematic approach based on the application of Fourier transform infrared spectropho
tometry (FTIR) was taken, in order to quantitatively analyze the corrosion products formed in the sec
ondary cycle of pressurized water reactors (PWR). Binary mixtures of iron oxides were prepared with
known compositions containing pure commercial magnetite (Fe3O4), maghemite (c-Fe2O3), and hematite
(a-Fe2O3) for calibration purposes. Calcium oxide (lime) was added to all samples as a standard reference
in obtaining the calibration curves. Using regression analysis, relationships were developed for intensity
versus concentration for absorption bands corresponding to each of the phases in their corresponding
FTIR spectrum. Correlation coefficients, R2, of 0.82, 0.87, and 0.86 were obtained for maghemitemagne
tite, hematitemagnetite, and hematitemaghemite systems, respectively. The calibration curves gener
ated were used to quantify phases in multi-component unknown field samples that were obtained from
different components (moisture separators, condensers, and high and low pressure heaters) of the two
units (units 1 and 2) of the secondary cycle of the Comanche Peak PWR.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Formation and transformation of iron oxides is of interest to a
wide variety of industries including steel making, power generat
ing, paint systems, pharmaceutical, and petrochemical, to name a
few. The thermal hydraulic performance and integrity of the steam
generators in nuclear power plants may be compromised due to
the presence of corrosion deposits. The amount of iron transported
in a steam generator is dependent on the composition of iron oxide
formed in the feed train. Deposits that contain well crystallized
magnetite and maghemite are more stable than deposits contain
ing a combination of oxides and oxyhydroxides [1]. Therefore, it
is very important to quantitatively understand the composition of
the deposits.
Standard methods for identifications and characterizations of
iron oxides have traditionally used either X-ray diffraction (XRD)
or Mssbauer spectroscopy (MS) [2]. XRD has been widely used
in characterizing corrosion products. Although these techniques
have served industry well in the past, they suffer from shortcom
ings that could be replaced by Fourier transform infrared spectro
photometry (FTIR). MS is a technique that utilizes a live radioactive
source, which makes the technique relatively unsafe from an oper
ational point of view, since it poses a potential health risk to the
operator. The main limitations of MS technique include the level
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 940 565 4052; fax: +1 940 565 2666.
E-mail address: nasr@unt.edu (S. Nasrazadani).
0010-938X/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.corsci.2008.06.034

of operator expertise requirements and the complexity of spectral

interpretation. Even though XRD is easier to operate and interpret,
its spectra is limited in its ability in differentiating magnetite and
maghemite.
On the other hand, FTIR instrumentation is simple and spectra
interpretation is relatively easy [3]. In the past, it has been estab
lished that the FTIR technique can be routinely used to efficiently
differentiate and quantify different iron oxides and oxyhydroxides.
To the best knowledge of the authors, no attempts have been made
in using FTIR for quantitative analysis of iron oxides formed in the
power plants. The main objective of this research is to quantify
iron oxide phases formed in the secondary side of the steam gener
ator units at Comanche peak steam electric station (CPSES). Such
analysis will allow better interpretation and control of the corro
sion process.
2. Literature review
Magnetite is a well-known form of iron oxide that forms at
room temperature in crevices between steel plates and at elevated
temperature inside boiler tubes, heat exchangers etc. The oxida
tion product of Fe3O4 is either c-Fe2O3 or a-Fe2O3 depending on
the oxidation temperature and/or possibly the crystallite size of
the starting magnetite [45].
Studies performed by Nasrazadani and Raman [4] have shown
that transformation of magnetite to hematite goes through the for
mation of maghemite. The production of maghemite begins with

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H. Namduri, S. Nasrazadani / Corrosion Science 50 (2008) 24932497

nucleation and growth of goethite or lepidocrocite, followed by

dehydration to hematite, and then reduction to magnetite.
The deposition rate of hematite is an order of magnitude
greater than magnetite. As seen from the Pourbaix diagram of iron,
it is important that the reducing conditions be maintained in the
steam generators during operation, so as to facilitate formation of
magnetite. Turner and Klimas showed that lowering the concentra
tion of hematite relatively to magnetite in the feedwater will signif
icantly lower the rate of tube bindle fouling [6]. Theoretical studies
by Jobe showed that hematite has a very low solubility and a much
smaller dissolution rate than magnetite and lepidocrocite in the
presence of 5ppb of dissolved oxygen. Formation of thin layer of
maghemite/magnetite is known to act as a very good passive film
[7].
FTIR spectra of iron oxides are well established. It is been
observed that the absorption band at a high wavenumber region is
due to OH stretching, and at lower wavenumber as a result of Fe-O
lattice vibration. FTIR spectrum of magnetite exhibits two strong
infrared absorption bands at 570cm1 (t1) and 390cm1(t2) [8].
According to Ishii et al, these bands can be assigned to the Fe-O
stretching mode of the tetrahedral and octahedral sites for the
t1 band at 570cm1 and the Fe-O stretching mode of the octahe
dral sites for the t2 band at 390cm1, provided that Fe3+ ion dis
placements at tetrahedral sites are negligible [8]. FTIR spectrum
of magnetite exhibits two other absorption bands at 268cm1and
178cm1 which were beyond the detection limit of our instru
ment. Maghemite, a defective form of magnetite, has absorption
bands at 630cm1, 590cm1, and 430cm1. Table 1 summarizes
possible FTIR peaks for different iron oxides.
Legodi and his group performed quantitative analysis on cal
cium carbonate present in different cement blends using FTIR [9].
Reig and group performed quantitative FTIR analysis on calcium

Table 1
Infrared bands of different iron oxides [4,13]
Iron oxide/hydroxide

Wave numbers of bands (cm1)

Magnetite (Fe3O4)
Maghemite (c-Fe2O3)
Hematite (a-Fe2O3)
Goethite (a-FeOOH)
Lepidocrocite (c-FeOOH)

Broad bands at 570 and 400cm1

700, 630660, 620 range (Fe-O range)
540, 470 and 352cm1
1124, 890 and 810cm1 for OH stretch
1018cm1 (in plane vibration) and
750cm1
(out of plane vibration)

carbonate and silica (quartz) using the constant ratio method. The
group used potassium ferricynaide as standard and successfully
showed the accuracy of quantifying the concentration of silica and
quartz in geological samples using FTIR [10]. The same group also
successfully showed that FTIR can be used to quantify butyl acetate
and toluene in binary and ternary mixtures using constant method
ratio. They used valeronitrile as the standard and they also showed
that the above method is independent of optical path length [11].
The Xu group showed that FTIR can be efficiently used for quan
tifying minerals. They used a multifunctional analysis, which is
based on Beers law to quantify different minerals present in oil
wells. In this method, the absorbance at a specific wave number
is equal to the sum of the absorbance of all sample components at
that wavenumber [12].
3. Experimental procedure
Commercially available powders of magnetite (puratronic
99.999% purity), maghemite (99+% purity), and hematite (99.99%
purity) were obtained. Three binary sets of sample mixtures with
known concentrations of maghemite and magnetite, hematite and
magnetite, and hematite and maghemite were prepared. All the
samples were added to KBr powder and compressed into pellets
using hydraulic press. Magnitude of compression applied in KBr
pellet preparation needs to be kept constant to avoid variance in
absorbance intensity from one sample to the next. Nicolet Avatar
370 DTGS FTIR was used to quantify iron oxides. FTIR spectra collec
tion was done for 32 scans with 2cm1 resolutions. Three equiva
lent runs of each of the three sets of the samples were made on the
FTIR spectrometer. The average values of background subtracted
peak intensity results were used for obtaining calibration curve.
Once all of the spectra for the samples were obtained, three cal
ibration curves were drawn for the three sets of samples. To set
the calibration curve for known amounts of iron oxide (magnetite,
maghemite and hematite) in each mixture, I/Io ratio was used. The
intensity of the iron oxide peak (magnetite 570cm1, hematite540cm1 and maghemite 630cm1) is represented by I and Io rep
resents, the intensity of the 3640cm1 peak of CaO.
This calibration curve was used to quantify the amount of iron
oxides present in the field samples collected from the secondary
side of CPSES. The most readily available samples of the secondary
system were obtained from the feedwater heaters (FW HTR-low
pressure and high pressure feedwater heaters), condenser, and
moisture separator-reheater (MSR), as these components are rou

Fig. 1. Simplified schematic of secondary system sample locations.

H. Namduri, S. Nasrazadani / Corrosion Science 50 (2008) 24932497

tinely opened during outages and represent major temperature

locations of the system as illustrated by Fig. 1.
The CaO absorption band was used primarily as a reference
because it does not interfere with any of the iron oxide phases.
Even though an absorption band of 3640cm1 is close to the
OH band, it has a very distinct peak and can be easily discerned
(Fig.2). CaCO3 (894865cm1 peak) has been previously used as
a standard reference in quantifying the amount of limestone in
different cement blends [9]. A linear fit was used to obtain the
calibration curve.

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4. Results and conclusions

Fig. 3 shows FTIR spectra of single phases of hematite, mag
netite, and maghemite. A sharp peak at 3640cm1 belonging to
calcium oxide is shown in all of the spectra of iron oxides. The
peak intensity of CaO was fairly constant in all the spectra. Cali
bration curves were obtained for combinations of two phases
of iron oxides. Correlation factors of 0.822 (magnetite added to
maghemite, Fig. 4), 0.8584 (maghemite added to hematite, Fig. 5),
and 0.8708 (magnetite added to hematite, Fig. 6) were obtained.

Fig. 2. FTIR spectra of 100% CaO showing 3640cm1 peak.

Fig. 3. FTIR spectra of 100% hematite, maghemite and magnetite.

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H. Namduri, S. Nasrazadani / Corrosion Science 50 (2008) 24932497

1.20

Table 2
FTIR intensities for different known concentrations of iron oxides used in calibra
tion curves (I=intensity of iron oxide mixture, and Io=intensity of 3640cm1 peak
of CaO)

Maghemite/Magnetite
Maghemite 630 cm-1

1.00

I/IO

0.80
0.60
y = 0.0032x + 0.6477
R2 = 0.8222

0.40
0.20
0.00

20

40

60

Maghemite Conc. (%)

80

100

Fig. 4. FTIR calibration for mixture containing magnetite and maghemite.

1.50
1.40

Hematite/Magnetite
Hematite 540 cm-1

1.30

I/IO

1.20

y = 0.0059x + 0.6335
2
R = 0.8708

1.10
1.00
0.90
0.80
0.70
0.60

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Hematite Conc. (%)

Fig. 5. FTIR calibration for mixture containing hematite and magnetite.

1.50
1.40
1.30

I/IO

1.20

Magnetite (%)

Maghemite (%)

I/Io

100

1.30
1.13

80
60
40
20
80
60
40
20

20
40
60
80

20
40
60
80

100

20
40
60
80
80
60
40
20

1.02
1.01
0.98
0.82
0.81
1.13
1.02
0.91
0.95
0.86
0.81
0.75
0.76

most intense peak of maghemite) was used for I values in the case
of mixtures containing magnetite and maghemite. No peak inter
ferences of any phases were observed in all of the mixtures since
FTIR spectra of all iron oxides are well resolved and spectra resolu
tion of most FTIR instruments is 2cm1. These calibration curves
were then used to quantify the iron oxide phases present in the
field samples collected from the secondary side of unit 1 and unit
2 of CPSES.
The percentage concentrations of the iron oxides present in
the selected field samples is given in Table 3. The samples from
the moisture separator mainly show hematite and magnetite.
The main feedwater heater sample showed 96% magnetite and
about 4% maghemite. The high-pressure feedwater heater sam
ple showed mostly hematite; whereas, low-pressure feedwater
heater sample showed hematite and magnetite. The presence of
magnetite and hematite is expected in feedwater systems due to
the transformation of hydroxides and other hydrated iron species,
which move through the feedwater system into stable iron oxides
(Schikorr reaction). The two samples form the main condenser
mainly consisted of hematite with traces of magnetite and maghe
mite. Detection limits determination for iron oxides quantification
using FTIR was not done in this study and is planned for future
work.
5. Summary and conclusions

1.10
1.00

y = 0.0046x + 0.7849
2
R = 0.8584

0.90
0.80
0.70

Hematite (%)
100

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Hematite Conc. (%)

Fig. 6. FTIR calibration for mixture containing maghemite and hematite.

A confidence limit of 95% was used in the calculations. The aver

age values of I/Io for three runs made with mixtures with different
concentrations of iron oxides are shown in the Table 2. Hematite
peak at 540cm1 intensity (the most intense peak for hematite)
was used for the I value for mixtures containing hematite and mag
netite, and maghemite and hematite. The peak at 630cm1 (the

A quantitative determination of iron oxides can be quickly per

formed relatively accurately using FTIR technique. The technique
involves taking mid infrared measurements with samples in the
form of KBr pellets. By using a standard reference like CaO, nor
malization can be performed. The peak of 3450cm1 is free from
interference with any of the major iron oxide peaks considered in
this study. This method makes it a very suitable method in quickly
determining the concentrations of major iron oxides in the power
industry.
The FTIR technique was reconfirmed to be a valuable tool to dif
ferentiate between Fe3O4 and c-Fe2O3. It is also been shown that
this technique can be used in quantifying iron oxides.
It has also been shown that the infrared active mode of calcium
oxide can be efficiently used in the quantification process. The FTIR
quantification method performed in this study can be further finetuned and extended to other major metallic oxides including: chro
mium oxide, nickel oxide, lead oxide, and silicon dioxide. This will
prove valuable for studying corrosion deposits formed in nuclear
power plants.

H. Namduri, S. Nasrazadani / Corrosion Science 50 (2008) 24932497

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Table 3
Concentration of field sample collected from different components of secondary side of unit 1 and unit 2 steam generator system of CPSES
Field samples

Sample description

Oxides present

Io

Maghemite (I)

Hematite (I)

I/Io

Final concentrations

1
2
3
4
5
6

Moisture separator
Main feedwater heater
Main condenser, hotwell
Main condenser
High pressure feedwater heater
Low pressure feedwater heater

Magnetite and hematite

Magnetite and maghemite
Magnetite and hematite
Maghemite and hematite
Maghemite and hematite
Magnetite and hematite

3.02
4.29
3.08
0.28
0.75
5.81

2.81

2.85

4.01
0.49
1.03
5.37

0.94
0.66
1.3
1.74
1.37
0.92

52% Hematite and 48% magnetite

96% magnetite and 4% maghemite
Mostly hematitea
Mostly hematiteb
Mostly hematiteb
52% magnetite and 48% hematite

a
b

Amount of magnetite was below the detection limit.

Amount of maghemite was below the detection limit.

Acknowledgement
Authors would like to thank both Mr. Jim Stevens and Mr. Rob
ert Theimer for providing field samples.
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