VOLATILE CORROSION INHIBITORS

FOR PROTECTION OF ELECTRONICS

By

Michael E. Tarvin
The Cortec Corporation
4119 White Bear Parkway
St. Paul, MN 55110

Boris A. Miksic
The Cortec Corporation
4119 White Bear Parkway
St. Paul, MN 55110

Published: April 1989,

NACE, National Association of Corrosion Engineers
Paper # 344
New Orleans

ABSTRACT

As electronic components become increasingly complex, the degree of corrosion

that can be tolerated is greatly decreasing. A method of protecting electronic components
from corrosion should not alter performance of circuitry or contacts, and should offer
some degree of protection to a wide variety of metal alloys. Steps taken to reduce
corrosion of electronic components to date have only been partially successful, therefore,
new methods need to be adopted to further reduce corrosion of electronic components.

The scope of this paper is to show that a properly formulated mixture of volatile
corrosion inhibitors can be used to effectively protect electronic metals from corrosion.
Comparisons of three volatile corrosion inhibitors were carried out on a variety of metal
test specimens in corrosive environments.

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 INTRODUCTION

Electronic components are a complex assembly of metallic and non-metallic

materials. Corrosion of the metallic components can readily occur in the presence of
moisture with the process being assisted or accelerated by corrosive contaminants often
present at micro-contamination levels. Sources of contamination that play an important
role in the corrosion of electronic materials are often derived from a wide variety of
atmospheric pollutants, low levels of contaminants present in packaging materials, and as a
result of human handling.1

Given their complexity, there are many mechanisms by which corrosion of

electronic components can occur. These include pore and creep corrosion of base metals
plated with a noble metal, corrosion caused by deposited pollutants in combination with
moisture, fretting corrosion, localized and stress corrosion in the presence of corrosive
contaminants (i.e. chlorides), galvanic corrosion resulting from contact of dissimilar
metals, and electrolytic corrosion resulting from applied potentials normally found in
electronic devices. Steps taken to eliminate corrosion problems including hermetic sealing
of components in cavities, use of protective coatings, encapsulation, use of noble metal
platings, increased use of more corrosion resistant metal alloys, and the use of moisture
absorbing dessiccants have all served to reduce, but not eliminate corrosion in electronic
components.2

Volatile Corrosion Inhibitors (VCIs) can provide an effective means of protecting

electronic components from corrosion. These compounds have sufficient vapor pressures
(10-3 to 10-5 mmHg at 70o F) to allow vaporization and subsequent condensation and
adsorption on metal surfaces as a mono-molecular passivating layer. The ultra-thin
protective layer does not interfere with conductivity or resistivity of the base metal. This
direct method of corrosion protection by means of metal passivation in many cases is
superior to traditional indirect methods of corrosion protection such as the use of drying
agents and protective coatings. We feel that in many applications the use of these types of
inhibitors coupled with steps that industry has taken to reduce corrosion of electronic
assemblies will further reduce this industry wide problem.

The specific objectives of the study undertaken for this paper are:

1. To determine the positive or negative effects of several volatile corrosion

inhibitors on metals commonly used in electronics applications.

2. To determine the extent of protection provided by several corrosion inhibitor

compounds on various metals in the presence of moisture and corrosive
contaminants such as hydrogen chloride and volatile sulfide compounds.

3. To briefly review expected inhibitor mechanisms to provide a better

understanding of inhibitor/metal interactions.

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 The volatile corrosion inhibitors to be studied are DICHAN
(dicyclohexylammonium nitrite), tolyltriazole and a proprietary mixed amine salt
compound. DICHAN is probably the first compound whose protective properties in the
vapor phase has been noted. This material has been used extensively for the protection of
mostly ferrous based metals. Tolyltriazole has been widely used in protecting copper
alloys as a surface treatment and in the vapor phase. Tolyltriazole has probably had the
most widely accepted use as an inhibitor in the electronics industry to date. Another
group of inhibitors based on salts of aliphatic amines or alkaholamines and carboxylic
acids are also gaining favor as multi-metal inhibitors. Mixtures of different amine salts to
optimize vapor pressures of the mixture and inhibitive properties toward a wider variety of
metals appears to offer potential as an inhibitor for multi-metal electronic systems.

EXPERIMENTAL

To minimize the myriad of complexities associated with the corrosion of electronic

components, an actual electronic device was not used in these experiments, rather test
specimens of individual metal alloys commonly used in electronics were evaluated by
exposing the metal to the inhibitor vapors in a corrosive environment. The corrosive
environments chosen for these experiments included high humidity exposure, high
humidity with hydrogen chloride added as a corrosive agent, and high humidity with a
volatile sulfide compound added as a corrosive agent.

The test apparatus was set up as follows:

1. 500 milligrams of the volatile corrosion inhibitors were sprinkled on the bottom
of a 1000 ml capacity glass jar.

2. A beaker containing 50 ml of deionized water was placed in each jar. In the cases
where corrosive agents were used, the deionized water contained 50 ppm
hydrogen chloride or 1 ppm ammonium sulfide.

3. The cleaned and prepared metal test specimens were placed into the jars
containing the corrosive media.

4. The jars were sealed with a screw top lid. The junction of the lid and jar was then
sealed with a low moisture vapor transmission rate tape.

5. The test jars were allowed to set at ambient conditions for 16 hours. The jars
were then placed in an oven operating in a cycle of 50oC for 12 hours followed
by a shut-off period of 12 hours in order to create a condensing humidity type of
environment.

6. After 30 days of continuous cycling in the oven, the specimens were removed and
examined for the degree of oxidation or tarnish observed. Each specimen was

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 evaluated according to the rating system outlined in Table 1 relative to a control
specimen.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Corrosion Inhibitor Rating System

Table I outlines the categorization system used to determine the degree of
oxidation and/or tarnish present on each test specimen.

The rating system shows whether the VCI compound exhibited positive, negative
or neutral effects on the test specimen compared to a control with no VCI compound
present. It also shows which inhibitor performed best on each metal test specimen.

Corrosion in a High Humidity Environment

Table II lists the results obtained with metal test specimens exposed to VCI
compounds in a condensing humidity environment.

In this case, DICHAN appeared to accelerate corrosion of tin based solder,

copper, brass, and cadmium alloys tested. Favorable results were obtained on aluminum
and steel. No significant effects were noted on lead based solder and nickel alloys.

On cadmium, tolyltriazole appeared to offer a marginal degree of protection,

whereas the mixed amine salt compound appeared to have accelerated corrosion.
Conversely, the mixed amine salts provided excellent protection to low carbon steel
whereas tolyltriazole offered marginal protection.

Corrosion in a Hydrogen Chloride Contaminated Environment

Table III lists the results obtained with metal test specimens exposed to VCI
compounds in a condensing humidity environment with hydrogen chloride added as a
corrodent.

The results obtained appear to roughly correlate to those obtained in a high

humidity environment listed in Table II. The added hydrogen chloride in this test does not
appear to have significantly increased the extent of corrosion observed on the metal test
specimens.

Corrosion in a Sulfide Contaminated Environment

Table IV lists the results obtained with metal test specimens exposed to VCI
compounds in a condensing humidity environment with a volatile sulfide added as a
corrodent.

The control specimens of copper and brass showed particularly severe

oxidation/tarnish compared to the other exposure environments. This was expected since
the oxidation/tarnish of copper and brass alloys are particularly sensitive to sulfide
compounds.

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 Table IV also shows the excellent results obtained on copper and brass with
tolyltriazole and the mixed amine salt compounds. Again, DICHAN appeared to
accelerate the attack on these materials.

The results on other metals tested appears to be similar to the results outlined for
the high humidity environment (Table II).

Initially, the volatile sulfide corrodent was added to water at a level of 5ppm.
However, it was found that this level of corrodent was too severe for any of the VCI
compounds to overcome on copper and brass alloys. It was found that a more realistic
concentration of the volatile sulfide compound was at 1 ppm in water.

Volatile Corrosion Inhibitor Mechanism

The mechanism of protection provided by volatile corrosion inhibitors has been
studied mostly on ferrous based metals. It is not precisely known what the exact
mechanism of protection is, but is believed that the monomolecular inhibitor coating that
condenses from the vapor phase on ferrous metal surfaces is dissolved by moisture to
create the ions necessary for protection. The weakly adsorbed inhibitor ions passivate the
surface by saturating the metal gas interface and by polarization of the metal. 3,4

The passivation mechanism on non-ferrous metals has not been as extensively

studied. Tolyltriazole is believed to interact with the cuprous oxide film normally present
on copper surfaces, forming a protective polymeric triazole film.5 It has been further
suggested that certain amine salt vapors also interact with cuprous oxides to form
organometallic compounds which may play an important part in the overall protective
mechanism. 6

Table V lists results obtained by first exposing carbon steel and copper panels to
the mixed amine salt and tolyltriazole compounds as outlined in the experimental
procedure. After the exposure period the panels were suspended in a condensing humidity
cabinet. The results indicate that there was no further oxidation of the copper panels, but
the carbon steel panels showed uniform general corrosion over the entire metal surface.

OBSERVATIONS/CONCLUSIONS

1. The volatile corrosion inhibitor DICHAN is not an effective inhibitor for

electronics because of its adverse effects toward several common metals used in
electronic applications.

2. The volatile corrosion inhibitors tolyltriazole and the mixed amine salt
compounds appear to be effective inhibitors for electronic applications because of
the favorable effect observed on a wide variety of metals. However, neither of the
inhibitors can be considered as universal for all metals.

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3. The mechanism of inhibitor passivation of metal surfaces appears to be related to
the character of the metal substrate. Test results seem to indicate that tolyltriazole
and the mixed amine salt compounds offer a lasting protection to copper surfaces
even after the bulk inhibitor compounds are removed. On the other hand, the
inhibitors do not offer lasting protection to carbon steel once the bulk of the
inhibitor has been removed. Weak adsorption of inhibitor ions may require
continual replenishing on the metal surface from the bulk inhibitor.

REFERENCES

1. R. B. Comizzoli, R. P. Frankenthal, P.C. Milner, J. D. Sinclair, Science, Vol.

234, pp. 340-345, (October 1986).

2. J. F. Henriksen, C. Leygraf, S. Zakipour, P. Villien, M. Wagner, “Atomspheric

Corrosion of Electronics”, 10th Scandinavian Corrosion Congress, Stockholm,
Sweden, 1986.

3. D. W. Slocum, “Survey of Vapor Corrosion Inhibitors”, University of Pittsburgh

NASA Industrial Applications Center, August 1986.

4. J. Mindowicz, “Study of the Mechanism of Action of Certain Volatile Corrosion

Inhibitor”, Foreign Technology Division, August 1970.

5. G. Meloy, “Cobratec Inhibitors: Corrosion Protection for Electronics”, PMC

Specialties Group, Inc.

6. I. L. Rozenfeld, E. Kh. Enikeev, K. V. Zvezdinskii, Zaschita Metallov, Vol. 10,

No. 4, pp. 442-446 (July-August 1974).

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