Corrosion of copper in distilled water without O2 and the detection of produced hydrogen

This paper reports on hydrogen pressures measured during similar to 19,000 h immersion of copper in oxygen-free liquid distilled water. Copper corrosion products have been examined ex-situ by SEM and characterized by XPS and SIMS. XPS strongly indicates a corrosion product containing both oxygen and hydrogen. SIMS shows that oxygen is mainly present in the outer 0.3 mu m surface region and that hydrogen penetrates to depths well below the corrosion product. Thermal desorption spectroscopy shows that the reaction product formed near room-temperature is less stable than that formed in air at 350 degrees C. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.