Passivation Studies

With the environmental advantages of citric acid passivation many companies are or have moved away from traditional nitric acid. The change in manufacture results in a need to understand the passivation properties of both acids to ensure that any change is not detrimental.
Techniques such as XPS, DSIMS, ToFSIMS and 3DP can be utilised to:

• Determine the oxide thickness layer.



• Chemically characterise the surface to ensure no contaminants have been introduced and that all traces of passivating acid have been removed.



• Physically characterise the surface to determine if the passivation layer is smooth or pitted and determine the surface roughness.