Effect of zinc addition to copper in improving its corrosion resistance in sulfide polluted synthetic seawater

Abstract

In an endeavor to develop a cost effective substitute of Cu-10Ni alloy for seawater application (especially for sulfide polluted seawater) few Cu-Ni-Zn-Mn alloys were developed in our laboratory. The Cu-Ni-Zn-Mn alloy was found to have better corrosion resistance than Cu-10Ni both in clean and sulfide polluted synthetic seawater. Resistance to sulfide in Synthetic Seawater was attributed to the formation of ZnS. To ensure that the resistance to sulfide attack is due to Zn alone, a series of studies were carried out with binary alloys of Cu and Zn with increasing weight percentage of Zn (12% and 36%). Potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was used for the purpose. Polarization studies gave the corrosion data and EIS was effective in depicting the nature of corrosion product (film). It was found that among the test alloys, Cu-36Zn is most corrosion resistant in sulfide polluted seawater due to formation of ZnS in the film. As it is a binary alloy, the corrosion resistance against sulfide is attributed to Zn alone.