Corrosion in Tinplate Cans Used for Food Storage, Part 3: Effects of Cysteine, NaCl, and Tomatoes on Corrosion of Tin, Iron, and Tinplate

Abstract

Tinplate cans used to contain foodstuff are fabricated from steel coated with a thin layer of tin and then overcoated with a thin polymeric layer. Previous papers in this series investigated the corrosion behavior of tinplate cans containing chopped tomatoes or one of the chemical components found in cans of chopped tomatoes. The amino acid cysteine was found to be an aggressive agent that can cause corrosion and blackening of the can headspace region. In this study, the corrosion phenomena associated with tinplate cans were investigated by studying the behavior, individually, of uncoated pure tin, iron, and tinplate in chopped tomato, NaCl, and cysteine solutions using electrochemistry, optical microscopy, x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. Black corrosion products, identified as sulfides, formed when the tin, iron, and tinplate specimens were exposed to cysteine solution at three different pH values. The black corrosion products were also found on both iron and tinplate when the samples were immersed in tomato solution. These results indicate that blackening on bare iron and tinplate could form easily from the decomposition of chemical compounds in heated tomatoes.