Studies of bronze corrosion phenomena by EBS and complementary techniques

Two binary bronze alloys were investigated in order to clarify the development of corrosion products on bronze exposed to chloride corrosive media. Bronzes were prepared by magnetron sputtering deposition on glass to create highly uniform and smooth bronze layers. The main goal was to monitor corrosion phenomena in the first and the most pronounced period of corrosion layer formation in duration of 11 days. For this purpose Ion Beam Analysis (IBA), i.e. Elastic Backscattering Spectrometry (EBS) with 2 MeV protons and 1.5 MeV Li beams were used to monitor the general stoichiometry and thicknesses of the corrosion product layers for different aging parameters. Simultaneously, Proton-Induced X-ray Emission Spectroscopy (PIXE) was used in addition to ATR-FTIR and Raman measurements to find out if, beside copper oxides, other species were present in the corrosion layer as well.