Microbiologically Influenced Corrosion (MIC) by Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria (SRB) has been the subject of
extensive studies for the past five decades and several theories have been proposed to explain the
mechanisms governing MIC. Recently, a corrosion mechanism for the action of SRB on iron was proposed,
which seeks to explain the initiation of this kind of corrosion in order to improve prevention and mitigation
techniques. This mechanism was supported on the fact that there should be a local pH decrease at the
metal/solution interface. So, the principal aim of this work was to prove this theory by evaluating an iron
interface exposed to a culture medium rich in nutrients and SRB. The H2S concentration produced was also
evaluated to establish its relation with the pH at the interface. To measure these parameters during 24 hours,
pH and H2S microelectrodes with tip diameters of 10 µm were used. A SRB pure culture of Desulfovibrio
desulfuricans subs. desulfuricans was used, grown as batch culture in modified ATCC 1249 medium with
and without ferrous ions, in order to determine their influence on the pH and H2S behavior. Attack
morphology and biofilm structure in both mediums were also determined by scanning electron microscopy
(SEM), placing iron sheets at vertical and horizontal position.