Research Article

Advancement in corrosion resistance of AA 2024-T3 through sol-gel coatings including nanocontainers

RNanolab, School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 15780, Greece

^* e-mail: charitidis@chemeng.ntua.gr

Received: 24 November 2016
Accepted: 3 January 2017

Abstract

The current study investigates the effect of nanocontainers incorporation into sol-gel coatings for the protection improvement of aluminium alloys 2024-T3 against corrosion. The nanocontainers were synthesized via a combination of radical polymerization process and sol-gel technique. They consist of cerium and molybdenum oxides and loaded with the anodic corrosion inhibitor 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT). The preparation of the coating matrix was accomplished using (3-glycidoxypropyl)trimethoxysilane as precursor. These organic modified silicate based sol-gel films were evaluated for their corrosion behaviour as well as nanomechanical properties using electrochemical and nanoindentation techniques, respectively. The results reveal that the presence of loaded nanocontainers improved the corrosion protection of the coatings; outcome that can be attributed to either the increase coherence of the coating or the simultaneously inhibition action of cerium and molybdate ions together with the corrosion inhibitor MBT. Moreover, the addition of nanocontainers empty or loaded with inhibitor amount strengthens (increase of wear resistance) the coating and decreases the coefficient of friction.