An electrochemically-based technique, which uses assessment of the oxygen reduction reaction at a Rotating Disk Electrode (RDE), has been devised which shows promise as a method for studying nucleation and growth of scale at a solid surface. In this paper results are presented which illustrate the good correlation between tha surface coverage predicted by electrochemical analysis and the actual coverage quantified by image analysis. Preliminary results in the presence of 1 ppm
polyacrylic acid inhibitor have indicated that, in inhibited solution, the new technique is valid for prediction of surface coverage. The potential of this technique for mechanistic studies of surface scaling and for assessment of inhibitors is discussed. Keywords : scaling, carbonate,
electrochemical, inhibitors, deposition, cathodic, RDE