Reflective microscopy for mechanistic insights in corrosion research

Reflective microscopy (RM) is a robust, label free optical imaging technique that allows fast operando measurements of structural changes on metal interfaces at nanoscale in a wide field. Based on the analysis of the reflected light, RM can be simply understood as “video camera” to produce optical photographs of studied interfaces and thus, it has been used for many years as a complementary tool for the visual inspection. However, recent developments in the optical models and refining the experimental design provided means for the quantitative conversion of reflected light intensities into the variations in roughness, thickness of surface films, chemical composition etc., all indispensable for the surface sciences. This review highlights recent advances and contemporary challenges in the methodological developments of RM specifically tailored for the corrosion research.