What kind of acid should I use for different metals, like Al, Cu and their alloys?
You need to take a look at ASTM G1, "Practice for Preparing, Cleaning and Evaluating Corrosion Test Specimens". This standard suggests several solutions to remove corrosion products from most alloy types. However, before cleaning your coupons, you should run a clean piece of each of your alloys through whichever solutions you select to determine how much metal mass you will lose during the cleaning process.
I've found that copper corrosion is cleaned very well with concentrated HCL and hexamethyltetramine as an inhibitor. Can't say much for the alloys.
Aluminum is a bit harder. I'd go for dilute acids.
A copper(II) oxide layer formed over metallic copper can be dissolved by using hot diluted acetic acid.
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