An In Situ Method to Study Atmospheric Corrosion of Contact Material

Contact material substrate plated with gold or palladium can be attacked by corrosion through the pores existing in the top-coat. Since the corrosion products usually are poor conductors they cause increased contact resistance. Investigations have been made by measuring the Contact resistance as a function of time in different atmospheres. This is a powerful but expensive and laborious method. An apparatus for the in situ measurement of pore corrosion based on diffuse scattering is reported here.