Correlation of wettability and superficial cleaning of 2024 aluminium alloy with air cold plasma treatment time

The subject of this study, 2024 aluminium alloy, is widely used in the aeronautic field for its high mechanical properties. In order to solve corrosive problems, where Al2024 is involved in critical applications such as aeronautic ones, it is necessary to paint aluminium alloy: the applied paint film protects the aluminium alloy from corrosion. To improve the adhesion of the paint film it is necessary to pretreat the manufactured surface: pretreatments develop a cleaned, uniform and wettable surface. Cold plasma is an efficient, economic and environmentally attractive alternative to the traditional pretreatment. An air cold plasma treatment improves the wettability of aluminium alloy and also cleans organic contaminants from the surface. This work aims to value the possible correlations between: (1) the wettability and the cold plasma treatment time, (2) the superficial cleaning and the cold plasma treatment time and (3) the superficial cleaning and the wettability.