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Which electronic products must be protected from oxygen (oxidation)?

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I am looking for all kinds of electronic products that need to be protected from oxygen. Can you give me examples for such electronic products and explain in which application fields they are used?
 

Most electronic components are already protected from oxidation or corrosion by paint or other agents. Oxygen is corrosive and exposed copper surfaces must be protected. The solder gets a oxide film that is protective from further corrosion but may be protected if the environment is very corrosive (in addition to oxygen). Switches, relays and other open contacts also should be protected.
 

Hi,

Your question os too general to answer.
You should give more informations.

****

Electronic products like a tv set, a cellular phone ... don´t need to be protected against oxygen.
Electronic components or PCBs - before soldering - when in stock for a longer period, maybe should be protected against oxidation.
Then they should create less soldering errors.

Klaus
 

Hi,

Any moving contact such as in switches, plugs/sockets and potentiometers.
Click to expand...

@chuckey:
I only have a couple of "switches, plugs and potentiometers" in my stock that are sealed against environmental air / oxygen.

Most of them are not sealed, so they are continously in contact with oxygen.

I try to figure out why you say "any":
* The switch in the wall for the light is not protected against oxygen
* the usb plug i use is not protected against oxygen
* the volume potentiometer in my (cheap) amplifer is not protected agains oxygen..

**
The contacts in a reed relay surely are protected against oxygen.. but what else?

Klaus
 

I believe that the question should be re-phrased: which electronic components should be protected against corrosion?

The short answer is: depends on the operating environment.

For instance, an electronic device designed to be used indoors, in a protected environment like an office, won't have any or very little corrosion protection.

A device designed to be outdoors, will have a layer of conformal coating which will protect it against humidity and dirt.

A device to be used in an automobile engine bay, should be protected not only against water but oil, battery acid, fuel, brake fluid, etc, and will be fully potted.
 

There are resin and lacquering products aimed to protect the board against humidity and duties, that in theory could provide additional protection against oxidation - although somewhat impeding the dissipation of heat. Once these substances may have some conductivity as well dielectric properties different than air, the applicability in general has restrictions depending on signals involved.
 

Oxygen also exists in the form of ozone, which is known to corrode. Ozone is produced by sparks. This can happen inside switches and relays.
 

Cheap Chinese solar garden lights rust away within a few months if they are outside in the rain, dew and humidity. The LEDs have iron or steel wires and the switch housing is also made of steel. A few years ago they used a Ni-Cad battery cell that had a steel housing that rusted away but new ones have a Ni-MH cell that does not rust, but the steel spring battery contact rusts away instead.
 

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