Brass dezincification with a bipolar electrochemistry technique

A bipolar electrochemistry approach was applied to characterise the dezincification of brass. The dissolution of both Cu and Zn resulted in the formation of Cu2O, CuO, ZnO and CuClx, with corrosion product formation characterised as a function of the potential gradient. At low potentials, protective corrosion products formed, with compositional changes observed via dezincification up to a critical applied potential threshold. Above the critical potential, no corrosion products could form, resulting in higher corrosion rates. The influence of corrosion product formation after bipolar electrochemistry assessment is compared to results from standard three-electrode potentiodynamic polarisation tests.