Design and Multidimensional Screening of Flash-PEO Coatings for Mg in Comparison to Commercial Chromium(VI) Conversion Coating

REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) regulations demand for an expedient discovery of a Cr(VI)-free alternative corrosion protection for light alloys even though the green alternatives might never be as cheap as current harmful technologies. In the present wor...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Wierzbicka, Ewa, Mohedano Sánchez, Marta, Matykina, Endzhe, Arrabal Durán, Raúl
Format: article
Publication Date:2021
Country:España
Institution:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repository:Docta Complutense
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/6874
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/6874
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:66.0
620
magnesium
coating
plasma electrolytic oxidation
flash-PEO
corrosion
chromium (VI) substitute
Ingeniería química
Materiales
3303 Ingeniería y Tecnología Químicas
3312 Tecnología de Materiales
Description
Summary:REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) regulations demand for an expedient discovery of a Cr(VI)-free alternative corrosion protection for light alloys even though the green alternatives might never be as cheap as current harmful technologies. In the present work, flash- plasma electrolytic oxidation coatings (FPEO) with the process duration < 90 s are developed on AZ31B alloy in varied mixtures of silicate-, phosphate-, aluminate-, and fluoride-based alkaline electrolytes implementing current density and voltage limits. The overall evaluation of the coatings’ anticorrosion performance (electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), neutral salt spray test (NSST), paintability) shows that from nine optimized FPEO recipes, two (based on phosphate, fluoride, and aluminate or silicate mixtures) are found to be an adequate substitute for commercially used Cr(VI)-based conversion coating (CCC). The FPEO coatings with the best corrosion resistance consume a very low amount of energy (~1 kW h m−2 µm−1). It is also found that the lower the energy consumption of the FPEO process, the better the corrosion resistance of the resultant coating. The superb corrosion protection and a solid environmentally friendly outlook of PEO-based corrosion protection technology may facilitate the economic justification for industrial end-users of the current-consuming process as a replacement of the electroless CCC process.