**3.2. The use of electrochemical techniques in the study of** *in-situ* **tribocorrosion processes**

Corrosion processes are of electrochemical nature and therefore electrochemistry likely interferes with the tribological behavior of tribocorrosion systems. Attempts were made in recent years to control wear by electrochemical methods in engineering and biomedical systems. These electrochemical techniques provide a very convenient way to measure the rate of corrosion processes in either the laboratory or the field. Such methods can also be used in many different ways to assess either their efficiency of monitoring corrosion material degradation (e.g., concrete steels, and marine alloy structures) or their capability for material protection (e.g., inhibitors, protective layers, coatings, and appropriate metals and alloys). The theoretical bases and the practical implementation of the electrochemical techniques have been published in books and review articles [8, 9, 11, 14] and this material is compendiously repeated here only to the extent that it is needed to define the terminology as well as the utility of the topic for the chapter.

In mechanical lubricated contact systems where surface interactions do occur, these techniques offer the possibility to simulate different corrosion conditions under well-controlled electrochemical environments. This can be done for instance by the measurements of open-circuit potential (*E*oc or *E*cor) during a corrosion-wear test, measurements of cyclic potentiodynamic polarization curves under wear and pure corrosion conditions, records of the current-induced applied potential resulting in an infinitesimal disturbance of the surface (potentiostatic control), measurements of current-induced single step anodic potential pulse (for the study of film repair, or repassivation), measurements of electrochemical noise for on-line tribocorrosion monitoring, measurements of electrochemical impedance, measurement of the linear polarization resistance (LPR), etc.

Since most of the undertaken studies on chemical degradation of glassy materials involve the use of cyclic potentiodynamic polarization method, it would be interesting to outline the conditions and limitations of this electrochemical technique for its use in tribocorrosion.
