Corrosion behavior of copper with minor alloying addition in chloride solution

The binary Cu–Cr and Cu–Zr and ternary Cu–Cr–Zr copper-base alloys are successfully prepared by the conventional metallurgy. Electrochemical measurements are used for examining the effect of single and binary addition of chromium and zirconium metals on the corrosion resistance of pure copper in 0.01–1 M NaCl solutions. Significant reduction in the corrosion resistance is observed when chromium and zirconium are added simultaneously to copper instead of single addition of chromium or zirconium metals. Meanwhile, the results of cyclic voltammetry show that the element Cr plays an offsetting role to the Cu2O film while the element Zr plays a deteriorated role. Finally, the corrosion mechanism for element Cr and Zr is suggested.