Current oscillations during copper electrodissolution under solution sparging in acidic NaCl solutions

Potentiostatic current oscillations were observed during electrodissolution of a helical coiled copper wire electrode in acidic sodium chloride when nitrogen was sparged through the solution. The oscillations were studied as a function of solution pH, chloride ion concentration and sparging rate over the potential range of 0.2 to 0.7 V versus Ag/AgCl (3 M NaCl). The surface morphology of the copper was observed during the oscillatory process using in situ, real-time optical microscopy, and the formation of a surface film was correlated with the oscillations.