The influence of butanol on the brass surface morphology during the electrochemical treatment in phosphoric acid solutions

Abstract

The polarization and gravimetric investigations of the anodic behavior of brass in phosphate-butanol solutions have been carried out. It has been shown that the addition of butyl alcohol to the phosphate electrolyte conditions causes the origination of the effect of electrochemical polishing. The polarization dependencies of the brass anode in the electrolytes containing butanol are peculiar for the metals prone to the passive state transition. The sections of polarization dependences correspond to the active dissolution domain, active–passive state domain, passive brass state domain and the domain of a joint progress of the process of alloy dissolution and oxygen release. The obtained experimental data show the reasonability of the addition of butanol to the phosphate electrolyte to obtain a high quality brilliant metal surface.