Copper corrosion originated by volatile organic acid vapours

The corrosion of copper in the presence of volatile organic acids is frequent. Thus, for example, it is known that failures by corrosion of the copper tubes take place in the air conditioning equipment, caused by volatile organic acids emitted by oils used in their manufacturing. Another frequent case is the corrosion of copper objects caused by the acids emitted by the materials used in packing, wood and resins, amongst others. This communication presents the corrosion results of copper exposed to 100% relative humidity and different concentrations (10-300ppm) of formic (HCOOH), acetic (CH3COOH), propionic (CH3CH2COOH) and butyric (CH3(CH2)2COOH) acid vapours, for short exposure times. the techniques used were gravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). (Author) 9 refs