Corrosion of Copper in Phosphoric Acid‐Ethanol Mixture

Introduction Much work has been done on the phenomenon of electropolishing since it was discovered by Jaquat. Most of this work was directed towards the elucidation of the polishing mechanism as well as establishing conditions for polishing of different metals and alloys. Studies on the polishing mechanism have revealed that electropolishing is a diffusion‐controlled process, which takes place at the limiting current, and electropolishing can therefore be treated quantitatively using the theory of mass transfer to the cathodic deposition of metal and metal powder. Some work has been done on the study of electropolishing under forced convection mass transfer conditions. A notable recent investigation involving copper and copper‐based alloys in a stirred cell is due to the study of Gabe and strongly suggests a diffusion‐limited mechanism at low temperature. Fouad et al. studied mass transfer under free convection in the electropolishing of vertical copper electrodes in phosphoric acid.