Corrosion and Wear Behavior of Al 2024 Alloy Coated With Intrinsically Conductive Polymers, ICPs

The Corrosion behavior of aluminum alloys coated with intrinsically conducting polymers, ICPs, such as polyaniline, polypyrrole and their composites has been determined. The corrosion rate of the coated substrates is significantly reduced in the presence of the ICP coating. However, the corrosion resistance of the coated Al was found to be strongly dependent on the electrochemical processing variables such as the applied current density, pH and the deposition time. Both low current densities, i 3/4 2 mA/cm2 and high current densities, i > 6 mA/cm2, resulted in high corrosion currents and low corrosion rates. Also the ICP coatings deposited at very short and very long deposition times, respectively, show decreased corrosion performance. In our presentation, we will discuss the effects of electrochemical processing variables on the surface structure and corrosion performance of ICPs coated Al.