Abstract:
The objective of this research is to investigate the effect of manganese in 92.5% Ag Cu Mn alloys on their microstructure, mechanical properties, surface color, and tarnish and corrosion resistance. This is ultimately to determine the suitable manganese content of sterling silver alloys for the jewelry industry. The experimental alloys contain 0, 0.38, 0.76, 1.3, 1.7, 2.1, 2.6 and 3.0 percent by weight manganese (here after shown in weight percent). The microstructure of 92.5%Ag Cu Mn alloys consists of both silver rich solid solution, as a matrix, and eutectic structure. The amount of manganese found in the eutectic is higher than those in the matrix. By increasing manganese content, the amount of eutectic structure, and therefore, tensile and yield strength and hardness of the alloys were decreasing. It was clearly observed that the hardness of 3.0%Mn alloys (52.1 HV) is lower than that of manganese free alloys (66.8 HV). The tarnish resistance was found to be improved when the amount of manganese were increasing and the tarnish films were studied quantitatively using a spectrophotometer. The color difference, DE*, of the manganese free alloys was 24.98 which was higher than that of the 3.0%Mn alloys, which was 5.19, for 3 hours tarnishing time. Potentiodynamic anodic polarization technique was applied to measure the corrosion potentials (Ecorr) and passive current density (Ip). In 1% sodium chloride solution, the increasing of manganese content not only promoted the noble shift in corrosion potentials but also reduced passive current density. However, in 1% sodium chloride solution saturated with hydrogen sulfide (H2S), the passive region could not be observed.