Pourbaix Diagrams are thermodynamic charts constructed using the Nernst equation and visualize the relationship between possible phases of a system, bounded by lines representing the reactions that transport between them.
[2] He was born in Myshega (Aleksin District, Tula Governorate, Russian Empire), where his father was a consultant on an engineering project.
In 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, he presented to the Faculty his doctoral dissertation, accompanied by a thesis entitled "Thermodynamics of Dilute Aqueous Solutions.
During the fifties and early sixties, Pourbaix and his collaborators produced potential-pH diagrams for all the elements and published the "Atlas of Electrochemical Equilibria" in French in 1963 and in English in 1966.
In 1949, he was one of the founders of CITCE (Comite International de Thermodynamique et Cinetique Electrochimiques) together with 13 other electrochemists: C.Boute, J.Gillis, A. Julliard (Belgium), P. Delahay, P.Van Rysselberghe (USA), J.O'M.Bockris, T.P.Hoar (UK), G.Charlot, G.Valensi (France), R.Piontelli (Italy), G.Burgers (The Netherlands) and J.Heyrovsky (Czechoslovakia).
Marcel Pourbaix was founder, honorary director and scientific adviser of CEBELCOR (Belgian Center for Corrosion Study), Professor at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, co-founder of CITCE, former chairman of the Commission of Electrochemistry of IUPAC (1952), of ICC (1969), member of the Advisory Committee of Electrochimica Acta (1959-1972) and of the Executive Board of Corrosion Science.