The systematic study of the chromium corrosion in Na2O-xSiO(2) melts is performed with varying glass basicity using electrochemical techniques. The metal can exhibit several typical behaviors (active or passive state) depending on the melt composition. Each possibility is described in terms of corrosion layer morphologies and thicknesses. The effects of the melt basicity, preoxidation treatment of the metal, and temperature are studied. The conclusions are given by putting face-to-face the Na2O activities in the melt with quantitative data extracted from this work. (c) 2007 The Electrochemical Society.