Characteristics of the AlON-Al2O3 Ceramic Coatings on the Al2021 Alloy by Electrolytic Plasma Processing

In this work, AlON-$Al_2O_3$ coatings were prepared on Al2021 alloy by the electrolytic plasma processing (EPP) method. The experimental electrolytes include: 2 g/l NaOH as the electrolytic conductive agent, 10 g/l $Na_2AlO_2$ as the alumina formative agent, and 0.5 g/l $NaNO_2$, $NaNO_3$, and $NH_4NO_3$ as the nitride inducing agents. The effects of different nitrogen inducing agents were studied by a combined compositional and structural analyses of the ceramic coatings carried out by Xray diffractometry (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for the specimens EPP-treated at room temperature for 15 min under a hybrid voltage of 260 DC along with an AC 50 Hz power supply (200 V). Microhardness tests and wear tests were carried out to correlate the evolution of the microstructure and the resulting mechanical properties. Potentiodynamic polarizations and immersion corrosion tests were carried out in 3.5wt% NaCl water solutions under static conditions in order to evaluate the corrosion behavior of the coated samples. The results demonstrate that $NaNO_2$ is proven to be a good nitrogen inducing agent to produce high quality AlON-$Al_2O_3$ ceramic coatings.