Hello!
First, please accept my apology that I sent off a bmp file to the news
group some days ago. I did not know that such type of file has caused a
lot of trouble to a lot of people. I am very sorry about that.
Probably because of the annoying binary file transfer, I did not receive
any reply on the question. So I would like to repeat the question, but
not to attach any picture file, don’t worry!
You may be surprised that I am a metallurgist asking a question which may
be related to biology.
We recently have a copper alloy contact surface tarnished. This contact
has been connected to a negative potential. The tarnish was found to
have micro-features very much like biological objects, sized from a few
microns to approximately 100 microns, and appeared to be like grasses.
We usually do not expect to see crystal growth as corrosion product grown
on the negative side. Also, the objects contain a high amount of
potassium. So we wonder if they are biological objects, although the
adjacent insulation material contains very small amounts of potassium.
Have you seen these things before? Or have you come across any
biological objects grown preferentially to a negative potential?
Hope you can help me.
I do not know which group of biology is the best to send to, please
forgive my ignorance in this field.
If you have interest or would like to help me, please let me know and we
will discuss how I can send you some SEM micrographs.
This mail is sent from my home internet account because the company
account is not connected to news groups. However, it is perfectly OK to
receive mails through the company account. Also, my home account may not
have sufficient space to receive too many mails. So please reply to the
following address:
xiaoqiao at sclpinet.clp.com.hk
Many Thanks.
X Du
