Long term corrosion behaviour of copper in soil: A study of archaeological analogues

Abstract

AbstractThe long term corrosion behaviour of copper in soil environment has been addressed by studying two archaeological copper samples. The microstructures of the material of construction of a Chalcolithic (2350BC‐1800BC) copper chisel from Balathal and an OCP period (2650BC‐800BC) Cu anthropomorphic object have been first characterized by microscopy and the features understood by stereological methods. The equiaxed grain size, coring effects in the grains and the relatively soft matrix of the OCP copper object indicated that it was manufactured by casting. The deformed grains near the surfaces and variation in the microhardness of the sample at different points suggests that the Chalcolithic copper chisel was processed by cold deformation after casting of the square cross section chisel. The surface patina on the two archaelogical copper objects has been characterized by X‐ray diffraction. In the case of OCP copper, the green surface patina was analyzed as a mixture composed mainly of cuprite, and minor amounts of malachite and brochantite. In the case of Chalcolithic copper, the patina was composed of sulfates and oxysulfates in the outer layers while the inner layers were rich in copper oxides. The electrochemical behaviour of both the archaeololgical coppers has been characterized and compared with that of a modern Cu sample by potentiodynamic polarization studies. The corrosion rate, determined by Tafel extrapolation technique in 3.5% NaCl solution, of Chalcolithic Cu was only marginally higher than that of modern and OCP Cu. The higher rates of corrosion in case of archaeological coppers have been attributed to the presence of second phase sulfide inclusions.