Corrosion Behavior of Silver-Plated Circuit Boards in a Simulated Marine Environment with Industrial Pollution

The electrochemical corrosion behavior of a silver-plated circuit board (PCB-ImAg) in a polluted marine atmosphere environment (Qingdao in China) is studied through a simulated experiment. The morphologies of PCB-ImAg show some micropores on the surface that act as the corrosion-active points in the tests. Cl(−) mainly induces microporous corrosion, whereas SO(2) causes general corrosion. Notably, the silver color changes significantly under SO(2) influence. EIS results show that the initial charge transfer resistance in the test containing SO(2) and Cl(−) is 9.847 × 10(3), while it is 3.701 × 10(4) in the test containing Cl(−) only, which demonstrates that corrosion accelerates in a mixed atmosphere. Polarization curves further show that corrosion potential is lower in mixed solutions (between −0.397 V SCE and −0.214 V SCE) than it in the solution containing Cl(−) only (−0.168 V SCE), indicating that corrosion tendency increases with increased HSO(3)(−) concentration.