Abstract
Hydrogen atom generation and permeation on nuclear waste storage canister surfaces threaten disposal safety. This study investigated the corrosion behavior of hydrogen-charged and non-charged copper in an anoxic, sulfide-containing groundwater environment simulating nuclear waste disposal conditions in Beishan, China. Chloride ions induced pitting corrosion in non-charged copper. The mass transfer rate of \(\text{Cu}{\text{Cl}}_{2}^{-}\) species within pitting pores was higher compared to that of Cu⁺ through the Cu2S layer, resulting in excessive thickening of corrosion products at pitting sites. By contrast, porous corrosion products on hydrogen-charged copper formed non-passivating films, leading to uniform substrate corrosion. The corrosion product thickness exhibited sub-parabolic growth over time. This predictable sub-parabolic growth pattern is crucial for reliable service life assessment of deep geological repositories rather than unpredictable pitting corrosion.
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The authors declare that the data related to the findings of this study are available within the paper and any other supporting data could be provided by the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52201092, 51901222), Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. ZR2022QB128) and the CAS Pioneer Hundred Talents Program.
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Liu X.J. Methodology, investigation, resources, formal analysis, writing – original draft, and funding acquisition. Liu N.Z. Conceptualization, formal analysis, writing – review & editing, project administration and funding acquisition. Ma Z. writing – review & editing. Wang Y.X. and Dai Y.C. investigation. Li C.T., Song L.J., Jiang Q.T. and Duan J.Z. writing – review & editing. Hou B.R. supervision and funding acquisition.
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Liu, X., Liu, N., Ma, Z. et al. Uniform corrosion of hydrogen-charged copper and localized corrosion of non-charged copper in anoxic groundwater containing diluted sulfide. npj Mater Degrad (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41529-026-00787-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41529-026-00787-8
