Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Electrochemical and surface investigations of copper corrosion in dilute oxychloride solution

  • Gha-Young Kim (Disposal Safety Evaluation R&D Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI)) ;
  • Junhyuk Jang (Decommissioning Technology Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI)) ;
  • Jeong-Hyun Woo (Disposal Safety Evaluation R&D Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI)) ;
  • Seok Yoon (Disposal Safety Evaluation R&D Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI)) ;
  • Jin-Seop Kim (Disposal Performance Demonstration R&D Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI))
  • Received : 2023.04.06
  • Accepted : 2023.05.17
  • Published : 2023.08.25
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Abstract

The corrosion behavior of copper immersed in dilute oxychloride solution (100 mM) was studied through surface investigation and in-situ monitoring of open-circuit potential. The copper corrosion was initiated with copper dissolution into a form of CuCl-2, resulting in mass decrease within the first 40 h of immersion. This was followed by a hydrolysis reaction initiated by the CuCl-2 at the copper surface, after which oxide products were formed and deposited on the surface, resulting in a mass increase. The formation of nucleation sites for copper oxide and its lateral extension during the corrosion process were examined using focused ion beam (FIB)-scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The presence of metastable compounds such as atacamite (CuCl2·3Cu(OH)2) on the corroded copper surface was revealed by X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM)-energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) analysis.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant and the Institute for Korea Spent Nuclear Fuel (iKSNF) funded by the Korea government (Ministry of Science and ICT, MSIT) (2021M2E3A2041351, 2021M2E1A1085193).

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