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The electrochemical evaluation of the degradation of reflector surfaces

Conference · · Proc. - Electrochem. Soc.; (United States)
OSTI ID:6990154

Electrochemical techniques including potentiostatic, potentiodynamic and galvanic measurements were employed to evaluate the corrosion resistance of mirrored surfaces. Corrosion current measurements generated using a potential driven modified scratch test were used to rank the corrosion resistance of in-house and commercially made mirrors. The electrochemical ranking compared very well with resistance rankings derived from modified salt spray and alternate immersion tests, but only required a few minutes to complete as compared to hundreds of hours required to complete the environmental tests. This technique has promise as a rapid quality assurance test. Galvanic measurements have shown that silver/copper is not an active galvanic couple and copper does provide only limited cathodic protection to the silver. In fact, galvanic titration measurements between copper and silver have shown that near a pH of 10.3 and in synthetic sea water a polarity reversal occurs and silver will corrode preferentially when coupled to copper. Measurements have also shown that oxidation of tin or stannous ions and hydrogen formation at the silver/glass interface may occur.

Research Organization:
Kennecott Minerals Company Salt Lake City, Utah
OSTI ID:
6990154
Report Number(s):
CONF-811013-
Journal Information:
Proc. - Electrochem. Soc.; (United States), Journal Name: Proc. - Electrochem. Soc.; (United States) Vol. 83-1; ISSN PESOD
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English