This article provides a summary of the concepts discussed in the articles under the Section “Fundamentals of Corrosion” in ASM Handbook, Volume 13A: Corrosion: Fundamentals, Testing, and Protection. In this section, the thermodynamic aspects of corrosion are descried first followed by a group of articles discussing the fundamentals of aqueous corrosion kinetics. The fundamentals of gaseous corrosion are addressed next. The fundamental electrochemical reactions of corrosion and their uses are finally described.

This article provides a discussion on the fundamentals of corrosion thermodynamics. The discussion focuses on electrochemical reactions, molten salt corrosion thermodynamics, and geochemical modeling.