Corrosion of Copper Alloys in Consumer Electronics Environments

Results of corrosion testing on eight alloys from five copper alloy families common in the consumer electronics industry—copper nickel tin (CuNiSn), copper beryllium (CuBe), copper titanium (CuTi), phosphor bronze (CuSnP), and Corson alloys (CuNiSiX)—are presented. Short-term exposures were conducted in simulated consumer environments such as a salted carbonated cola beverage, artificial human perspiration, and phosphate-buffered saline. Longer-term, conventional salt fog testing, up to 1,000 h, was also conducted. In all of these tests, Cu-NiSn showed the lowest corrosion rate followed closely by CuBe alloys. Corrosion rates of CuTi alloys were consistently the highest after short-term testing, while CuSnP showed the highest corrosion rate after salt fog testing.