Wear and corrosion experiments are conducted simultaneously
using a sliding ball-on-plate conguration, where the contact is
totally immersed in the test electrolyte.

The tribocorrosion module is a three-terminal electrochemical cell installed on the sample stage, with the sample, a platinum wire and an Ag/AgCl, NaCl (sated) electrode acting as working, counter and reference
electrodes, respectively. The open circuit potential (OCP) is
measured in situ to monitor the evolution of the tribocorrosion
process.

The reduction of OCP works as an indicator for the failure
of the protective films. The change of coefficient of friction (COF)
also provides insight into different stages of the wear development.

The wear tests can be carried out under anodic or cathodic polarization conditions to either accelerate or inhibit the corrosion process, in order to investigate the effect of corrosion reactions on the tribocorrosion rate.