Nickel Oxidation and Zinc Oxide

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hello everyone,

I thought that I might send a few questions over this listserv to
see if anyone might be able to help me out with some info I’ve been
searching for in regards to metallic oxidation. If my questions
seem rudimentary, please bear with me…here goes:

  1. I’ve been lookin for some data on the oxidation rates of nickel
    and zinc. In particular, I was wondering if anyone knows how fast
    oxidation will occur on pure nickel and pure zinc. Obviously, when
    the oxide is stripped, these two metals will form a native oxide
    quickly, but I was wondering how thick that oxide is, and perhaps
    how fast the oxide will continue to grow. Is the native oxide on
    the order of tens of angstroms at room temperature, or will it grow
    to maybe 100’s of nanometers within seconds? I would imagine that
    they are both self-limiting oxides at room temperature, so what kind
    of thickness are we dealing with at room temp, and how quickly does
    it take to reach that thickness? Essentially, is the oxidation
    growth at room temperature similar to aluminum, which grows a thick,
    stable oxide VERY quickly, or do these metals allow a small window
    where you have basically pure metal exposed (with an angstrom level
    oxide present for a period of minutes) after stripping the oxide?

  2. Are there any good chemicals to remove oxides without forming
    some kind of reactive product on the surface of the metal? For
    example, I’ve been thinking about using diluted HCl (which I believe
    is the active ingredient in basic flux) to remove something like
    copper oxide, but I’ve been concerned about depositing a metal
    chloride on the surface of the metal. Copper aside, any suggestions
    for removing nickel oxide or zinc oxide without depositing an
    unwanted reaction product on the surface of the metal would be
    greatly appreciated.

  3. Are there any good references that anyone can think of that go
    into the oxidation growth profiles for various metals at different
    temperatures? I know that it’s all case dependent, and I’m not
    expecting a single graph or equation (as oxidation is a complicated
    process depending on temperature, time, composition, configuration,
    pressure, etc), but any reference that anyone could suggest would be
    very helpful in me answering my own questions about oxidation.

Thanks in advance,
Brian