7 th International Symposium on Electrochemical Methods in Corrosion Research, EMCR2000 Paper No. 128 Budapest, Hungary – May 28 – 1 June 2000 1 Investigation of Copper Corrosion Inhibition at Nanometer Scale A. Shaban, E. Szöcs, Gy. Vastag*, E. Kálmán Chemical Research Center, HAS, Bp., H-1525, P. O. Box 17, Hungary *University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Yu. ABSTRACT The inhibition of copper corrosion, in acidic sodium sulfate solution (pH 3), by the addition of aromatic sulfoxides was studied. The investigated aromatic chemicals were di-benzyl-sulfoxide (DBSO), di-phenyl-sulfoxide (DPSO) and di-p-tolyl-sulfoxide (DPTSO). Electrogravimetrical measurements, using an electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM), were used to monitor mass and potential changes of the copper electrode surface. Potentiostatic polarization experiments were conducted in order to evaluate the inhibition effectiveness of the additives. The investigated aromatic sulfoxides exerted inhibition protection against copper corrosion in the following order: DBSO > DPTSO > DPSO. A possible mechanism for the action of these inhibitors against copper corrosion was presented. EQCM was shown to provide a real time measurement of corrosion rate with very high sensitivity. We also present results of an is situ STM study on the surface structure in presence of DBSO inhibitor, which is aimed at a better understanding of the inhibition effect, the adsorption process of DBSO. KEY WORDS: Sulfoxide, copper, corrosion, inhibition, quartz crystal microbalance, in situ STM.