Electroplating on Al6082 Aluminium: A New Green and Sustainable Approach

Abstract

Aluminium and its alloys are interesting for many applications because they are very light, cheap, and unlimitedly recyclable. Despite being a promising base material for the fashion-jewellery sector, their tendency to form a passivating film makes them difficult to be galvanized, even more when recycled aluminium contains impurities of refractory elements. Indeed, the most common processes for galvanising aluminium are often expensive and not environmentally sustainable because they involve the use of cyanides. In this work we focussed on the pre-treatments and electroplating on Al6082 aluminium which is largely used for fashion-jewellery applications. The objective of the present study was to assess whether Al6082 series aluminium is suitable a as base material for the fashion market; therefore, we investigated the effectiveness of plating pre-treatments and the success of electroless zinc deposition using an innovative alkaline cyanide-free zincate solution. After the electroplating, adhesion between the deposited layers was evaluated both with cross-sectional scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis as well as with an adhesion evaluation test (ISO2819:2018): no detachments confirmed the positive test outcomes and thereby highlighted that Al6082 can be exploited as base material in the fashion-jewellery market.

Surface Engineering of Metals: Techniques, Characterizations and Applications

“…Electroplating enables the enhancement of surface properties such as corrosion resistance, aesthetics, and conductivity. It finds extensive applications in industries such as automotive, electronics, and jewelry manufacturing [39,40].…”

“…Electroplating enables the enhancement of surface properties such as corrosion resistance, aesthetics, and conductivity. It finds extensive applications in industries such as automotive, electronics, and jewelry manufacturing [39,40]. Electroless Plating: Unlike electroplating, electroless plating (depicted in Figure 6) is a non-electrochemical process that involves the deposition of a metal coating onto a substrate without the need for an external power source.…”

“…In the realm of chemical techniques, electroplating processes have been optimized to achieve higher deposition rates, an improved coating quality, and a reduced environmental impact [39]. Electroless plating techniques have seen advancements in the development of new plating solutions and strategies for selective plating on complex surfaces [52].…”

Chiral “doped” MOFs: an electrochemical and theoretical integrated study

“…In particular, the electrochemical behaviour was studied by performing cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements using a solid-state electrochemical approach ( Solano et al, 2021 ; Solano et al, 2022 ). Typically, electrochemical-based CV measurements are exploited to study the electrochemical behaviour of metals and organic compounds in bulk solution ( Bonechi et al, 2021b ; Stefani et al, 2021 ; Giurlani et al, 2022b ; Bonechi et al, 2022 ), or using commercial systems of the electroplating industry ( Berretti et al, 2020 ; Mariani et al, 2022 ; Comparini et al, 2023 ). In this study we adopted a new custom-designed setup to probe the crystal electrochemical behaviour, to avoid the dissolution of the solid-state material.…”

Switching Properties of the Contact Coatings Based on Refractory Metals Alloys

“…The main disadvantages of Ag and Au coatings are the destruction of the contact surface due to mechanical wear, as well as the sticking of contacts due to the low hardness, wear resistance, and melting temperatures of these metals. Coatings based on Ru, Rh, and Pd [11] are the propensity for the delamination and carbonization of the contact surfaces due to catalytic reactions, resulting in the formation of polymeric carbon-containing films upon an interaction with ambient air. A general disadvantage of the above coatings is their high cost and rather complicated deposition technology, especially for ruthenium and rhodium coatings.…”