Title: corrosion
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - corrosion
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.C01351
Status: current

Definition
An irreversible interfacial reaction of a material (metal, ceramic, polymer) with its environment which results in consumption of the material or in dissolution into the material of a component of the environment. Often, but not necessarily, corrosion results in effects detrimental to the usage of the material considered. Exclusively physical or mechanical processes such as melting or evaporation, abrasion or mechanical fracture are not included in the term corrosion.

Related Terms
- ceramic: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/CT07540
- dissolution: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/D01806
- evaporation: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/E02227
- melting: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/M03821

Source
- PAC, 1989, 61, 19. 'Electrochemical corrosion nomenclature (Recommendations 1988)' on page 20 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac198961010019)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/C01351/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/C01351/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/C01351/xml

Citation: Citation: 'corrosion' 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.C01351
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-06-12T02:55:12+00:00