Abstract
A quartz crystal analyzer is utilized to monitor the corrosion process of an aluminum surface of a quartz crystal for marine sensor by sea water. A quartz crystal having 2000 $\AA$ of aluminum layer is installed in a specially designed cell and is in contact with sea water imitated electrolyte solution. While a constant potential is applied to the cell, the resonant frequency and resonant resistance are simultaneously measured using the quartz crystal analyzer. In addition, surface topographs are taken with an atomic force microscope(AFM) and the element analysis of the surface is conducted using an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer(EDX). The simultaneous measurement of resonant frequency and resonant resistance during the corrosion process explains the change of surface structure caused by the corrosion. The variation of resonant frequency addresses the amount surface metal dissolution. As a conclusion, it is found that a simple measurement using the quartz crystal analyzer can replace the complex monitoring employing large equipments in the investigation of a corrosion process of sensor surface.