A study of Corrosion Protection of Aluminum Metal by Tetraethoxysilane Plasma Polymerized Coatings -Influence of Aluminum Surface Pretreatments-

The corrosion-protective performance of plasma-polymerized (PP) coatings on pretreated aluminum substrates has been investigated by cathodic polarization curve measurement. The surface composition and electronic properties of the pretreated and PP film coated metal surfaces were also characterized by XPS and the temperature-programmed photoelectron emission (TPPE). A PP coating was prepared on the pretreated surfaces by plasma polymerization of a mixture of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) monomer vapor and oxygen using a 13.56MHz radiofrequency generator. The polarization curve of PP film coated samples was measured in NaCl aqueous solution. The weight loss rate calculated from the value of the corrosion current of the curve was used to estimate the protective performance of the PP film coated samples. Argon plasma treatment of the metal surface gave much better corrosion-protective performance than pretreatments such as oxidation by heating in air and diamond scratching. The XPS analysis indicated that the silicon oxide assigned to SiO2 was formed on the PP film coated surface. The TPPE analysis revealed that the electron emission characteristics for the metal surfaces pretreated only were strongly influenced by the pretreatments, while all the PP film coated samples exhibited nearly the same electron emission trend with a much decreased intensity.