ABSTRACT
ANTHONY A. PARKER* A. A. Parker Consulting <£ Product Development, 10 Columbine Circle, Newtown, PA 18940, USA
Abstract-The corrosion resistance of musical instrument strings is improved through surface modification with polymeric film-forming materials including benzotriazole (BTA) and N-2-aminoethyl-3aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (AAPS). The improvements are most noteworthy when the core of the string is cathodic in character (i.e., titanium as opposed to steel). The corrosion inhibiting function of benzotriazole and other azole compounds is known to result from a combination of factors, including the ability of the azole functionality to chelate with the metal oxide surface to form a polymeric film. AAPS possesses analogous molecular-level capabilities, and also provides improved corrosion protection when applied from dilute solutions. FT-IR analyses of AAPS-treated strings reveal that improved corrosion protection is accompanied by a frequency shift in both the N-H deformation and N-H stretching bands. Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) reveals that the resonant characteristics are influenced by the weight of the polymer coating. Collectively, these results provide unique insight into the common molecular level attributes that are required to simultaneously optimize the corrosion resistance and vibrational characteristics of musical instrument strings.
