Abstract
Ellipsometry was used to investigate the effects of temperature and potential on the growth kinetics of passive films on iron exposed to a pH 8.6 borate buffer solution. It was found that over the temperature range of 0°–80°C the growth kinetics could be described with an equal degree of confidence by either logarithmic, inverse logarithmic, or a modified form of inverse logarithmic kinetics. None of the existing models for film growth were found to be completely consistent with the temperature and potential dependencies of the growth constants.