Impact of chlorinated disinfection on copper corrosion in hot water systems

Abstract In France, hot water quality control inside buildings is occasionally ensured by disinfection treatments using temperature increases or addition of sodium hypochlorite (between 0.5 ppm and 1 ppm residual free chlorine). This disinfectant is a strong oxidiser and it could interact with metallic pipes usually used in hot water systems. This work deals with the study of the impact of these treatments on the durability of copper pipes. The objective of this work was to investigate the influence of sodium hypochlorite concentration and temperature on the copper corrosion mechanism. Copper samples were tested under dynamic and static conditions of ageing with sodium hypochlorite solutions ranging from 0 to 100 ppm with temperature at 50 °C and 70 °C. The efficiency of a corrosion inhibitor was investigated in dynamic conditions. Visual observations and analytical analyses of the internal surface of samples was studied at different ageing duration. Corrosion products were characterised by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. Temperature and disinfectant were found to considerably affect the copper corrosion mechanism. Surprisingly, the corrosiveness of the solution was higher at lower temperatures. The temperature influences the nature of corrosion products. The protection efficiency is then strongly depend on the nature of the corrosion products formed at the surface of copper samples exposed to the aggressive solutions containing different concentration of disinfectant.