Abstract
Corrosion of silver by outgassed sulfur species from rubber has been investigated by means of quartz crystal microbalance technique (QCM) and cathodic reduction technique. Silver specimens were placed together with a rubber of predefined quantity in an enclosed environment. Corrosion progressed linearly with time and silver sulfide was found as the corrosion product during all the tests. No significant dependence on RH was observed, while the corrosion rate increased as temperature rose. Furthermore the corrosion rate increased logarithmically with the quantity of the rubber placed in the exposure environment. It may be suggested that the corrosion rate of silver is determined by the amount of outgassed sulfur species which is a function of temperature and the quantity of rubber contained in the exposure environment.