An XPS and AES study of the free corrosion of Cu-, Ni- and Zn-based alloysin synthetic sweat

This paper deals with the investigations into the behaviour during free cor rosion of Cu/Zn/Ni, Cu/Ni/Zn and Ni/Cu alloys in a synthetic sweat medium b y means of surface analyses. For the three alloys studied, our experimental results indicate the presence of a corrosion layer, the thickness of which increases with the increase of the copper content of the alloy. The corros ion layers are composed of Cu- and Ni-based compounds. For the alloys with a high Cu content, the latter is mainly composed of copper (I) oxide in whi ch chloride anions are included. For the alloys with a high Ni content, Cu- 2(OH)(3)Cl and Ni-compounds like Ni(OH)(2) and NiO are detected in the corr osion layer. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.