Combined EBSD and AFM Study of the Corrosion Behaviour of ETP-Cu

In order to increase the sustainability of metals, a more detailed understanding of the corrosion process is of crucial importance. Current literature often considers corrosion as a purely chemical interaction with a nearly exclusive dependence on compositional effects, while ignoring microstructural and crystallographic properties of the metal surface. Some recent literature data, however, suggest an important effect of microstructural elements such as grain size, crystallographic orientation and grain boundary characteristics. The aim of this work is to obtain a better understanding of the relation between the corrosion behaviour of a metal and its microstructural and crystallographic features. Therefore, warm rolled Electrolytic Tough Pitch (ETP-) Cu was immersed in a 0.1 M NaCl and 0.5M Na2SO4 solution and the combination of Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) allowed to identify differences in attack for different crystallographic orientations.