The anodic dissolution of copper in aerated, alkaline chloride solutions with pH of 8.5 and 9.5 was studied using an axisymmetric impinging jet geometry for which the mass transfer to the disk electrode was uniform. At slightly anodic potentials the copper usually passivated for a pH of 9.5 in less than ten seconds. For the less basic solution the copper did not passivate in 40 minutes. No breakout velocity was seen in the current-potential behavior. A scanning ellipsometer was used to observe temporal and spatial variations on the surface of the copper. No radial variations were seen as a function of velocity, even though the maximum shear stress at the surface of the electrode was about 100 N/m2, which is about ten times the value reported in the literature for the critical shear stress of copper. This means that the critical shear stress reported in the literature cannot be attributed to a shear induced removal of a protective film.

Subject
Electric current, Anode potential, Geometry, Seawater, Stress, Shear, Electric potential, Copper, Erosion corrosion, Electrodes, Rest potential, Step potential, Electrode potential
Keywords:
chloride, copper, ellipsometry, erosion-corrosion, film formation, passivity
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1990
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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