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The purpose of this paper is to compare corrosion behavior of a modified multilayer material with Cu before and after brazing process.

Sea water acidified accelerated tests (SWAATs), potentiodynamic polarization tests and scanning electron microscopy were used to study the corrosion behavior and macro/micro structures. Results indicate that the corrosion mechanisms of the sheets before and after brazing process are completely different.

The un-brazed material is uniform corrosion, while the brazed material has a high sensitivity to localized corrosion and loses cathodic protection to the core. It is found that brazing process causes copper transition from the core alloy into eutectic phases in the cladding, leading to higher E_corr and different potential distribution compared with those of un-brazed materials.

For the modified multilayer material after brazing, there are two stages of corrosion. First, corrosion attack takes place along eutectic phases in the cladding material, and then core alloy dissolves by forming a galvanic couple with the nobler residual cladding.