美国加利福尼亚大学伯克利分校的材料科学家加雷思·托马斯,针对摩天大楼和立交桥等建筑所用钢筋易腐蚀的问题,开发出一种几乎不会锈蚀的耐腐蚀钢筋。 钢筋多为废钢经熔化和轧制,再经空气冷却而成。钢筋在冷却时,所含的碳开始析出,形成碳化物。这些碳化颗粒渗透钢材,虽可使钢筋强化,但也易造成腐蚀。因为碳化物会在钢筋内构成小型原电池,电子倾向于从铁流动到碳化颗粒,正如电子在原电池中由阳极流向阴极一样。这样,铁把 Gareth Thomas, a materials scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, has developed corrosion-resistant steel bars that are hardly rusted by the corrosion of rebar used in buildings such as skyscrapers and overpasses. The steel bars are mostly scrap melted and rolled and then cooled by air. As the steel bar cools, the carbon it contains begins to precipitate and form carbides. Although these carbonized particles penetrate the steel, they can strengthen the steel, but they also cause corrosion. Because carbides form small primary cells within the rebar, electrons tend to flow from iron to carbonized particles, just as electrons flow from the anode to the cathode in the primary cell. In this way, iron handle