Effects of processing parameters on the corrosion performance of plasma electrolytic oxidation grown oxide on commercially pure aluminum

The plasma electrolyte oxidation (PEO) process has been considered an environmentally friendly surface engineering method for improving the corrosion resistance of light weight metals. In this work, the corrosion resistance of commercially pure Al and PEO treated Al substrates were studied. The PEO layers were grown on commercially pure aluminum substrates using two different alkaline electrolytes with different addition concentrations of Si₃ N₄ nanoparticles (0, 0.5 and 1.5 gL⁻¹) and different duty cycles (25%, 50%, and 80%) at a fixed frequency. The corrosion properties of PEO coatings were investigated by the potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy test in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solutions. It showed that the weight gains, layer thickness and surface roughness of the PEO grown oxide layer increased with increasing concentrations of Si₃ N₄ nanoparticles. The layer thickness, surface roughness, pore size, and porosity of the PEO oxide layer decreased with decreasing duty cycle. The layer thickness and weight gain of PEO coating followed a linear relationship. The PEO layer grown using the Na₂ B₄ O₇·10H₂ O contained electrolyte showed an excellent corrosion resistance and low surface roughness than other PEO coatings with Si₃ N₄ nanoparticle additives. It is noticed that the corrosion performance of PEO coatings were not improved by the addition of Si₃ N₄ nanoparticle in the electrolytic solutions, possibly due to its detrimental effect to the formation of a dense microstructure.