Influence of lanthanum as additive and post-treatment on the corrosion protection properties and surface morphology of mild steel chemically treated by a cerium conversion coating

Multifunctional screen-printed films using polymer nanocomposite based on PPy/TiO2: conductive, photocatalytic, self-cleaning and antibacterial functionalities

In this work, two electrically conductive samples based on polypyrrole (PPy) and (PPy/TiO₂) were synthesized via mini-emulsion polymerization. Synthesized samples were used as functional fillers to formulate two different screen-printing pastes (pastes A and B) to obtain the multi-purpose printed films with excellent properties, including electrical conductivity, antibacterial, photocatalytic activity, and self-cleaning. The surface tension, pH, and conductivity measurements validated the acceptable features of the produced pastes. Because of the shear-thinning behavior and viscosity buildup properties of the produced pastes, rheological investigations confirmed their potential for screen-printing. According to I–V test results, the optimum sintering temperature was chosen as a function of electrical conductivity, and the properties of the printed patterns were investigated by varying the printing sequences as 3, 6, and 9 times and sintered at the optimum temperature (90 °C). The contact angle of water on the optimum sample printed by Paste B was ca. 127° and relatively higher than the counterpart printed by Paste A which verified the superiority of the self-cleaning properties of the printed films with latter paste over the former. The photocatalytic studies concerning the degradation of methylene blue showed that the removal percentage of ca. 63% was achieved within the first 90 min of performing the test under UV light. The photocatalytic printed film was addressed the issue of filtering the unused suspension of nanoparticles, which made it difficult to remove the particles from the treated wastewater, in terms of sustainability. The fabricated patterns using Paste B exhibited improved properties, including electrical conductivity, antibacterial and photocatalytic activity.

Effect of Corrosive Medium and Surface Defect-Energy on Corrosion Behavior of Rolled ZK61M Alloy

Magnesium alloys have been widely used as lightweight engineering structural materials, but their service performances are severely restricted by corrosion failure. In this paper, the influence of corrosive medium and surface defect energy on the corrosion behavior of rolled ZK61M alloy was investigated. The corrosion tests were conducted in different concentrations of sodium chloride solution for different durations, and the polarization curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were reported. The surface morphology of rolled ZK61M alloy before and after corrosion tests were analyzed. The results showed that the corrosion tendency became stronger with the increase of the concentration of corrosive medium and the number of surface defects of ZK61M alloy. Moreover, the initial corrosion pattern was the pitting caused by micro galvanic corrosion at the surface defect, which gradually developed into uniform corrosion. Furthermore, the main damage occurred at the grain boundary, resulting in the destruction of grain bonding force and the removal of material along the rheological layer. The oxidation corrosion mechanism was mainly the anodic dissolution mechanism.

Study on the Friction Performance of Cerium Oxide on Supersonic Flame-Sprayed WC-10Co-4Cr Coating

In order to improve the surface wear resistance of the key parts of agricultural machinery, this article uses 65Mn steel, which is commonly used in agricultural machinery, as the matrix and tungsten carbide-based coating as the basis. In total, two coating materials are selected as WC-10Co-4Cr with and without CeO2 added. The coating was prepared by the supersonic flame spraying process (HVOF), and the tribological characteristics and coating of the three samples of 65Mn, WC-10Co-4Cr, and WC-10Co-4Cr+CeO2 coatings were investigated by the comprehensive material surface performance tester. Layer porosity, microhardness, and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) phase analysis reveal the modification mechanism of WC-10Co-4Cr coating by rare earth CeO2. The experimental comparison results show that WC-10Co-4Cr is prepared on the 65Mn steel substrate, and the WC-10Co-4Cr+CeO2 coating significantly improves the surface hardness, the coating structure is uniform and dense, and the pores are less. The coating hardness value is relatively high, reaching 1200–1500 HV(N/mm2), and the porosity is less than 1%. When the rare earth cerium oxide is added to WC-10Co-4Cr, the porosity of the coating decreases and the hardness increases. It is proved that rare earth has the modification effect of refining the coating structure. Therefore, adding CeO2 to the WC-10Co-4Cr coating and using the supersonic flame spraying process to prepare the coating can obtain more excellent wear resistance.

Investigation on the composition and corrosion resistance of cerium-based conversion treatment by alkaline methods on aluminum alloy 6063

Cerium conversion coating (CeCC) and Ce–Mo conversion coating (CeMCC) were prepared on aluminum alloy 6063 (AA6063) by immersion in alkaline conversion baths. Surface morphology and composition of the conversion coatings were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). And electrochemical measurements were used to assess corrosion performance of the coatings. The SEM observations showed that CeMCC possessed a smoother and more uniform structure than CeCC, and the thickness of CeCC and CeMCC was about 0.8 and 1.2 μm respectively. The XPS depth analysis indicated that CeMCC contained a considerable amount of molybdenum and the cerium content was higher than that of CeCC at all coating depths. CeCC comprised of Al₂O₃, Ce₂O₃, CeO₂, and cerium hydroxides, and the composition of CeMCC also included MoO₂, MoO₃, Al₂(MoO₄)₃ and Na₂MoO₄ besides the above mentioned components. A potentiodynamic polarization (PDP) test revealed that the corrosion current density (i_corr) values for bare alloy and CeCC were 13.36 and 4.38 μA cm⁻² respectively in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution, while CeMCC exhibited the lowest i_corr value of 0.24 μA cm⁻², about two orders of magnitude lower than that of the substrate. Furthermore, the results obtained from both a cupric sulfate drop test and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) characterization suggested that CeMCC possessed higher corrosion resistance in comparison with CeCC.

In contrast with the abundant research into acidic conversion treatment, cerium-based conversion coatings were prepared on AA6063 by alkaline methods.

Neodymium-decorated graphene oxide as a corrosion barrier layer on Ti6Al4V alloy in acidic medium

Ti6Al4V alloy is light weight and is used in construction, oil industries and airbus, automobile, and bio implant materials. The native oxide layers of the alloy are not stable at high temperatures and strong mineral acid environments. The conventional epoxy-based layers are porous and the alloy finally fails in the harsh environment in the long term. Therefore, the carbon-based functional materials are being proposed as coating materials to overcome the alloy degradation. In the present contribution, we have used the neodymium-decorated graphene oxide as the corrosion inhibiting barrier for the Ti6Al4V alloy. As a novelty, we found that the few-layer graphene decorated with neodymium acts as a self-cleaning coating. The Nd-decorated graphene oxide were studied by XRD, TEM, FESEM, FTIR, UV, and Raman spectroscopy. The corrosion inhibition efficiency was studied by electrochemical methods.