PROGRESS OF APPLICATION OF KELVIN PROBE TECHNIQUE IN STUDIES ON ELECTROCHEMISTRY

Since its first application in corrosion science the Scanning Kelvin Probe(SKP) technique had been shown to be a useful tool for studying corrosion of metals under thin or ultra-thin electrolyte flims.Also,it was a powerful means to analysis the buried interface of organic coating/metal.By introduction of a Kelvin probe mode to atomic force microscopy(AFM),the so called Scanning Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy(SKPFM) was realized,thereby the application of Kelvin probe technique to material research and corrosion problems had significantly promoted.In this paper,the measurement theory and the test devices of the Kelvin probe were briefly introduced.The emphasis was given to the progress of application of Kelvin probe technique to electrochemical research in the past decade.