This work, within EPSRC LATEST2 (Light Alloys Towards Environmentally Sustainable Transport 2) Programme Grant, is focused on the development of environmentally-friendly corrosion inhibitors, nanocontainers loaded with inhibitors and epoxy coatings for corrosion protection of the aerospace alloy AA 2024-T3. More specifically, the electrochemical techniques of image assisted electrochemical noise, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, split-cell technique and potentiodynamic polarization were used for the qualitative and quantitative evaluation and characterization of environmentally-friendly corrosion inhibitors on AA 2024-T3. Scanning electron microscopy observations complemented the electrochemical measurements. It was found that the organic inhibitor 2-mercaptobenzothiazole provides excellent corrosion inhibition properties to AA 2024-T3 in 3.5% sodium chloride solution. Among the tested nitrates, cerium nitrate provides the best inhibition performance. The concentration of the nitrate salt is critical in determining the corrosion protection. An excessive concentration of nitrate ions results in the dissolution of copper-containing oxides, increasing the corrosion rate. Different types of core-shell structured nanocontainers were synthesised with the methods of distillation precipitation polymerization, emulsion polymerization and sol-gel. The nanocontainers were characterized by scanning electron and transmission electron microscopy observations. The corrosion inhibitor 2-mercaptobenzothiazole was encapsulated into the nanocontainers. The encapsulation of 2-mercaptobenzothiazole was evaluated with energy dispersive X-ray analysis mapping micrographs from transmission electron microscopy measurements. Epoxy coatings with nanocontainers loaded with 2-mercaptobenzothiazole were applied on AA 2024-T3 for protection against corrosion. The corrosion protection properties of the coatings were evaluated with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The results indicated that epoxy coatings provide excellent barrier properties to AA 2024-T3 in the demanding environment of 3.5% sodium chloride solution with low frequency impedance values more than 1 GOhm cm2 for over 4000 hours of testing. Coatings containing nanocontainers loaded with 2-mercaptobenzothiazole tested with an artificial scribe revealed protection of the AA 2024-T3 substrate in the scribed area, decrease of the anodic delamination in the early hours and decrease number of cathodic dark areas after long immersion time. Overall, epoxy coatings with encapsulated inhibitors can be considered as a promising system for potential replacement of hexavalent chromium treatments on aerospace alloy AA 2024-T3.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:728083 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Balaskas, Andronikos |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/corrosion-protection-by-encapsulated-inhibitors(6295df0b-7ae9-4e8f-957b-2f9468740cb8).html |
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