Technical Articles From BlackBerry Limited

Dissolution of Metal Foils in Common Beverages

Jul 07, 2016 | Bev Christian, Nancy Wang, Mark Pritzker, Daniella Gillanders, Gyubok Baik, Weiyi Zhang, Joanna Litingtun, Brian Kim; Blackberry, University of Waterloo

How susceptible are the metals used in modern electronics manufacturing to corrosion by common beverages? This is a question of interest, especially to manufacturers, retailers and to a certain extent end customers.

In this study the dissolution of aluminum, copper, gold, iron, lead, nickel, SAC305 solder, silver, tin and zinc was examined. Individual foils of these materials were fully immersed in one of sixteen chosen beverages and heated for 3 days at 40°C. The resulting solutions were analyzed using ICP-OES. The data were examined in light of the known pH, conductivity and ionic contents of the beverages, determined in previous work. Conclusions about the relative susceptibility to corrosion of the various metals and the corrosive power of the different beverages are made....