Abstract
The effect of ammonium chloride additions on the corrosion behavior of copper in 1 N sodium bicarbonate solutions has been characterized using a rotating ring-ring linear cyclic voltammetry technique. The experimentation and solution compositions used were selected to account for an unusually high incidence of pitting found to occur on interior surfaces of copper cold-water plumbing fixtures in the vicinity of neutral soldering flux residues. Although concentrations of ammonium chloride above 0.05 N were found to result in an increase of corrosion rate often attributed to the stabilization of a cuprous ion complex metal dissolution reaction product, under freely corroding conditions in an air-saturated solution, corrosion of copper metal would occur by an anodic process in which current was distributed between both soluble metal ions (cuprous and cupric ions) and insoluble corrosion product deposits. Although increases in applied potential or relative fluid velocity produced increases in the total corrosion rate, there was also a change in current distribution between the various components of the overall anodic process.
Results from this study suggest that soluble and insoluble corrosion products (cathodically or anodically generated during a single linear polarization cycle) affect corrosion behavior during either successive cycles or extended exposure periods to such an extent that sole reliance on single-cycle anodic polarization behavior for the prediction of long-term corrosion resistance for copper and its alloys should be avoided.
