Effect of Anodic Current Density on Characteristics and Low Temperature IR Emissivity of Ceramic Coating on Aluminium 6061 Alloy Prepared by Microarc Oxidation

High emitter MAO ceramic coatings were fabricated on the Al 6061 alloy, using different bipolar anodic current densities, in an alkali silicate electrolyte. We found that, as the current density increased from 10.94 A/dm2 to 43.75 A/dm2, the layer thickness was increased from 10.9 μm to 18.5 μm, the surface roughness was increased from 0.79 μm to 1.27 μm, the area ratio of volcano-like microstructure was increased from 55.6% to 59.6%, the volcano-like density was decreased from 2620 mm−2 to 1420 mm−2, and the γ-alumina phase was decreased from 66.6 wt.% to 26.2 wt.%, while the α-alumina phase was increased from 3.9 wt.% to 27.6 wt.%. The sillimanite and cristobalite phases were around 20 wt.% and 9 wt.%, respectively, for 10.94 A/dm2 and approximately constant around 40 wt.% and less than 5 wt.%, respectively, for the anodic current densities 14.58, 21.88, and 43.75 A/dm2. The ceramic surface roughness and thickness slightly enhanced the IR emissivity in the semitransparent region (4.0–7.8 μm), while the existing phases contributed together to raise the emissivity in the opaque region (8.6–16.0 μm) to higher but approximately the same emissivities.