[sdiy] Carbon foam

[Mike I]

Picked up an old square of conductive foam stuffed with TTL chips at a ham
flea market... took it out recently and the foam had become crumbly, and the
IC pins were visibly corroded. On a hunch, tested a moistened piece of the
foam with some pH testpaper and it was highly acidic... pH around 2 !
Perhaps it is some kind of polyvinyl chloride that is releasing HCl as it
deteriorates.

Horrible stuff.
Perhaps the newer pink colored foam doesn't do this.
Best to store ICs in the original antistatic tubes.
M.