Avaliação do desempenho de revestimentos híbridos modificados com inibidores no combate à corrosão de ligas de alumínio.

Abstract

Anticorrosion metals treatments using formulations containing derivatives of hexavalent chromium (Cr 6+) have been standard in the surface treatment industry for many decades. These treatments afford excellent corrosion protection, offer good base for paintings, are inexpensive and relatively easy to apply. Besides, they provide active protection to the substrate due to their selfhealing abilities. However, environmental and health restrictions, made more severe from the end of the eighties, require replacement of these treatments by processes that are environmentally friendly and not aggressive to human health. In this context, the aerospace industry, which is strongly dependent on high strength aluminium alloys, is one of the most heavily affected, as (Cr 6+) compounds are used in several steps of the surface treatment and corrosion protection processes. Within this new reality, the use of hybrid coatings derived from silanes and obtained by the sol-gel process, has emerged as one of the most investigated alternatives to replace the chromate based pre-treatments. These coatings form a compact polymer network on the metal surface providing an effective barrier against aggressive species, they may also be tailored to present compatibility with organic coatings. However they do not exhibit active corrosion protection. In this study the corrosion behavior, in 0.1 M NaCl, of a hybrid coating produced by hydrolysis and condensation of 3glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTMS) and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) applied on AA2024-T3 alloy was investigated by means of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and analysed by SEM/EDX. Aiming to improve the coatings performances, the hydrolysis solutions were modified by the addition of 0.005 M of triazoles (benzotriazole (BTAH) and tolyltriazole (TTA)) or organophosphates (trimethylene phosphonic acid (ATMP) and 1hydroxyethylidene-1 1-diphosphonic acid (HEDP)) based corrosion inhibitors. The results of the electrochemical tests showed that, although effective for corrosion protection of the alloy, BTAH and TTA adversely impacted the anticorrosive properties of the hybrid coating. In turn, the modification of the hybrid with ATMP or HEDP improved the impedance response of the coating and increased its stability, proving to be a promising approach to enhance the coating performance. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy were used to characterize the hybrid modified with organophosphates. With the first technique it was possible to demonstrate the interaction of the inhibitor molecules with the metal surface. Raman spectroscopy results indicated the incorporation of the inhibitors in the coating, being more effective for this purpose than the XPS analysis. However, to demonstrate this process, it was necessary use the concentration of the inhibitors 10 times more than the amount employed in the electrochemical tests.