CORROSION PROPERTIES OF ALUMINUM-BASED ALLOYS DEPOSITED BY ION-BEAM-ASSISTED DEPOSITION

The replacement of cadmium coatings by other protective measures is an important task because of the environmentally detrimental properties of cadmium. Therefore, aluminum and aluminum alloy coatings containing elements such as silicon or magnesium with more positive or negative positions in the galvanic series in relation to pure aluminum were deposited by ion beam assisted deposition onto glass and low carbon steel. Pure aluminum films were deposited onto low carbon steel in order to study the influence of the ion-to-atom arrival ratio and the angle of ion incidence on the corrosion properties. For examination of the pitting behavior as a function of the concentration of alloying element, quasipotentiostatic current-potential and potentiostatic current-time plots were measured in chlorine-containing acetate buffer. It is shown that these alloys can protect steel substrates under uniform and pitting corrosion conditions considerably better than pure aluminum coatings.