Active corrosion protection of phosphate loaded PEO/LDHs composite coatings: SIET study

Abstract This work produced a MgAl-layered double hydroxide by hydrothermal treatment of a plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) coating on magnesium alloy AZ31 in an phosphate electrolyte, followed by an ion-exchange reaction in 0.1 M phosphate solution. The coated specimens were scratched. Characterization, including utilization of the localized technique SIET, measured the pH and pMg distributions and optical morphologies around the artificial defects during immersion in 0.05 M NaCl solution. In contrast with phosphate loaded PEO/LDHs, a stronger alkalinization area (with pH 11.4∼12.3) appeared in the passive PEO specimens. Due to formation of insoluble Mg(OH)2 products, the pMg map showed depletion of Mg2+ in this high pH area. Combined with optical morphologies and SEM images, the better self-healing ability toward defects for phosphate loaded PEO/LDHs was confirmed.