The use of sacrificial zinc anodes for cathodic protection (CP) of steel in reinforced concrete is a subject of increasing interest in Mexico, specially for their potential applications on highway bridges seriously damaged by chloride contamination. One anode material gaining acceptance is thermally sprayed zinc (TSCP). In this paper, the feasibility of using E1S, as a monitoring tool to determine if the CP level is sufficient to mitigate corrosion was investigated for carbon steel in concrete. As a first approach, this investigation deals with the behavior of the galvanic couple steel/zinc under CP conditions in NaCl solution. The EIS diagrams obtained were compared with those corresponding to laboratory concrete slabs, whose surface was thermal sprayed with Zn.
Keywords: cathodic protection, EIS, galvanic, concrete, reinforcing steel, thermally sprayed zinc anode, zinc.