Abstract
Owing to corrosion effects of, for example, electronics or objects representing our cultural heritage, there is an obvious need to predict the corrosivity in any given indoor environment. A standard method adopted by the Instrument Society of America is based on the exposure of copper coupons typically over a 1-3 month period and prediction of corrosivity on the basis of measurements of corrosion product thickness by cathodic reduction. The main aim of the present work has been to obtain more reliable predictions than is currently possible through the exposure of several reference metals rather than copper alone, and by exploring other methods of corrosion effect evaluation than cathodic reduction. The results show that both mass loss and mass increase measurements are alternative techniques to cathodic reduction. More reliable corrosivity predictions can be made with longer exposure times and with more reference metals. The exposure of copper as the reference metal can provide information on the influence of relative humidity and the overall pollutant level, the exposure of silver can provide information on the hydrogen sulphide influence, and the corrosion effects of nickel and zinc can provide information on the influence of sulphur dioxide and of organic compounds.
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