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Brass corrosion – dezincification in hydrochloric acid

  • Thomas Fickenscher , Jasmin Schröer , Olaf Reckeweg EMAIL logo and Rainer Pöttgen EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: September 17, 2024
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Zeitschrift für Naturforschung B
From the journal Zeitschrift für Naturforschung B Volume 79 Issue 8-9

Abstract

Brass is among the utility metals for daily life. We present an easy corrosion experiment for demonstration in high school or first-year undergraduate studies. Almost any kind of brass can be dezincified in 1 m hydrochloric acid. Copper as the noble component remains as salmon pink coating on the workpiece while zinc and lead, the latter being a frequent minor alloying component of brass, are dissolved. Lead can be detected as PbS (in-situ generation of H2S from a splinter of FeS or as PbI2 using KI). Zinc can be analyzed as Rinmann’s green or via a microchemical drop reaction with dithizone.

Keywords: acidic corrosion; demonstration experiments; electrochemistry
Corresponding authors: Olaf Reckeweg, Gymnasium ‘Ernestinum’ Rinteln, Paul-Erdniß-Straße 1, 31737 Rinteln, Germany, E-mail: ; and Rainer Pöttgen, Institut für Anorganische und Analytische Chemie, Universität Münster, Corrensstrasse 30, 48149 Münster, Germany, E-mail:

  1. Research ethics: Not applicable.

  2. Author contribution: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved the submission.

  3. Competing interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.

  4. Research funding: This research was funded by Universität Münster.

  5. Data availability: Data is available from the corresponding author on well-founded request.

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Supplementary Material

This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/znb-2024-0052).

Received: 2024-06-13
Accepted: 2024-07-10
Published Online: 2024-09-17
Published in Print: 2024-09-25

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/znb-2024-0052
Keywords for this article
acidic corrosion; demonstration experiments; electrochemistry

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. In this issue
  3. Research Articles
  4. One-pot conversion of 2-ethoxycarbonyl-4H-3,1-benzoxazine-4-ones to tetracyclic quinazoline-6,12-diones in the presence of a Pd complex nanocatalyst
  5. Selectfluor-triggered C–H halogenations of enaminones with copper(I) halide (CuX) for the synthesis of 3-halochromones
  6. Refrachor (F) – seventy-year-old tool and a contemporary observation: estimation of equilibrium compositions of 1H- and 2H-tautomers of tetrazole and 1,2,3-triazole and imine–amine composition of acetaldimine–vinylamine tautomerism
  7. Magnetic properties of the solid solutions CePt1−xAu x Al (x = 0.1–0.9)
  8. Structure, physical and 27Al NMR-spectroscopic properties of the equiatomic compounds of the type REAlRh (RE = Sm, Tb, Dy, Er, and Lu)
  9. Synthesis, structure and optically limiting NLO properties of a distorted cubane-like cluster (µ-Cl)(µ3-WSe4)(CuPPh3)3
  10. Brass corrosion – dezincification in hydrochloric acid
  11. Ca2Co5.66Zn11.34, Ca2Co4.62Zn12.38 and Ca2Co2.36Zn14.64 – First intermetallic compounds in the Ca–Co–Zn system
  12. Comprehensive structural evaluation of the quaternary chalcogenide Ag2CdSnSe4
  13. High-pressure synthesis and crystal structure of the mixed-cation borate V5−x Co x Co y [B12O26−z (OH) z ]
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