@equill:

Man, you're a mad scientist! Thanks for the treatise!

Now a few questions, if you don't mind, because chemistry was not my forte:

1)

If one leaves the "characteristically-coloured copper salts, hydroxides and carbonates" on the copper, will this further oxidation? (my intuition says no - damage already done)

2)

When you say "of its solutes towards copper", you mean the stuff you mentioned earlier (glycols, boric+organic acids, salts, etc), that is inside the electrolyte, right?

And lastly,

3)

Not a question, but I *always* had a feeling (through experience) that electricity running through the affected traces made things worse.

4)

So here are my most important questions:

If water is the best solvent, won't it matter if the water is chlorinated (tap water) or if it's got lots of impurities (typical tap water) ? Should we use distilled water? What is a brand for a non-polar detergent? And will baking powder do anything at all? (I assume it's used by people to combat the acidic substances)

5)

Easy one: what's your profession? You know so much about capacitors, I'm lead to believe you make capacitors as your day job

Thanks for all the great info!