The Optimisation of Hexadecanethiol Coatings to Improve the Tarnish Resistance of Sterling Silver
Silver tarnishes readily in common atmospheres and is accelerated in humid atmospheres. Tarnish is the formation of silver sulphide on the surface of silver when it is exposed to a wide range of sulphurcontaining atmospheres. Tarnish is unattractive and highly undesirable, and can be removed either with a silver polish or a chemical dip. Dips are generally only recommended when heavy black tarnish cannot be removed with a polish, and care must be taken during cleaning because these can contain aggressive chemicals and give off hazardous and unpleasant smelling fumes. Polishes work best for large areas of plain undecorated silver, and form part of a regular cleaning programme. Some polishes contain chemicals that inhibit tarnishing, but these generally only have a short life. Several methods have been developed to reduce tarnish formation on Silver; these include alloying, surface treatment, and coatings. The authors evaluated a range of self-assembled monolayer (SAM) surface treatments and coatings in earlier research. Four treatments/coatings increased the time to noticeable tarnish by more than tenfold, and the results were reported at the International Corrosion Congress (ICC) in 2005, and at the Mint Directors Conference (MDC) in 2006. SAM treatment using 95％ 1-hexadecanethiol (C16H34S) was found to give good anti-tarnish performance and showed potential for the commercial treatment of Sterling silver. Therefore research was performed to optimize the methods of application of this type of coating to provide an easier, faster, and more-user friendly technique to provide an anti-tarnish treatment.
silver tarnish resistant coatings
J.J. McEwan M. Scott F. E. Goodwin
Mintek International Lead Zinc Research Organisation
国际会议
第五届中国国际白银年会(5th China International Silver Conference Proceeding)
广东番禺
英文
153-163
2006-09-28（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）