Study of Initial Corrosion Behaviors of Pure Copper under Simulated Marine Atmosphere

Abstract

The corrosion behaviors of pure copper were studied in initial exposure to a simulated marine atmosphere. A two-electrode cell system with two identical pure copper plates had been employed in electrochemical tests of potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The copper electrodes were deposited with 70 µg cm-2 NaCl particles and then exposed in a humidified pure air of 97% RH at 25 °C. The time-evolution of corrosion current density obtained from the cathodic polarization curves had a trend of firstly decreasing, then increasing and finally getting a relative stable stage. The EIS data showed that the transition of two time constants corrosion stage to three time constants corrosion stage. The initial atmospheric corrosion behaviors of pure copper could be divided into three stages, including rapid corrosion stage, diminished corrosion stage and balanced corrosion stage.