A simplified treatment of the limiting conditions for selective oxidation of binary alloys

The conditions for the initial formation and continued stable growth of a continuous film of oxide BOsub(ν) on an alloy AB are derived, using simple arguments. The object is to expose the basic assumptions of the models used to describe the situations in which B is oxidized selectively, and to show in a simple way how the various limiting conditions relate to the diffusion processes in the alloy and its oxide. (author)