Title: active state
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - active state
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.A00111
Status: current

Definition
Corrosion in the active state occurs by direct transfer (which may involve one or several steps) of metal ions from the metallic phase to the adjacent electrolyte. The corrosion current of an active metal usually increases when the electrode potential is made more positive, other conditions remaining constant.

Related Terms
- Corrosion: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/C01351
- corrosion current: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/C01354
- electrode potential: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/E01956

Source
- PAC, 1989, 61, 19. 'Electrochemical corrosion nomenclature (Recommendations 1988)' on page 21 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac198961010019)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00111/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00111/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00111/xml

Citation: Citation: 'active state' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.A00111
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Accessed: 2026-07-23T19:48:27+00:00