Journal of Metallurgy and Materials Science

Pure copper, silver and tin have been exposed for 1 to 12 months in indoor environment, inside a Stevenson chamber, placed in urban industrial environment of Coimbatore city. The atmospheric pollutants such as chloride and SO₂ deposition rates were monitored inside the Stevenson chamber by exposing wet candle and lead peroxide candles respectively. The temperature, relative humidity of the air was periodically monitored. The weight loss increases with exposure time,due to condensation of moisture, and moderate values of salinity and sulphur dioxide. The corrosion behaviour of these metals explained by the power equation C = A tn is linear which has be found for all metals. Basic copper sulfate, posnjakite, cuprite and basic copper chloride on copper surface, silver sulphide and silver chloride on silver metal and oxide and chloride of tin on tin metal were identified as corrosion products using XRD method.