Electrochemical Deposition of Aluminum-Based Coatings From Aqueous Systems
Abstract
The electroplating of aluminum has represented a challenge for the coatings industry for decades. The reactivity of aluminum metal leads to a very negative reduction potential. This leads to abundant gas evolution instead of aluminum reduction in water. Current aluminum deposition technology overcomes this limitation by excluding oxygen and water from the process with rigorously dry solvent and airtight plating tanks. These adaptations yield metallic aluminum depositions with significant impurities affecting its properties. In addition, this approach requires a great capital investment and cost of process maintenance. An alternative approach to Al electrodeposition has been developed based on the the use of organic ligands to stabilize the Al3+ ion in water-based solutions. By using a ligation approach, we can create aluminum species that remain stable in water while lowering the reduction potential of the aluminum complex by 0.5V. This improvement in reduction potential gives the possibility for the deposition of aluminum without significant competition from hydrogen evolution. With this platform we can deposit highly adherent aluminum-based layers on metal surfaces. The aluminum/aluminum oxide layers appear as thin, coherent and highly adherent coatings. This aluminum/alumina layer can then be chemically treated to achieve desirable surface properties which were previously inaccessible. Formore »
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- LumiShield Technologies Inc.
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1598784
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-LUMI-FE0031659-1
- DOE Contract Number:
- FE0031659
- Resource Type:
- Multimedia
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: SSPC Coatings+ 2020, Long Beach CA, 02/03/20 - 02/06/20
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Coating, Corrosion, Electrodeposition
Citation Formats
Watkins, John D, Nulwala, Hunaid, and Brankovic, Stanko. Electrochemical Deposition of Aluminum-Based Coatings From Aqueous Systems. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web.
Watkins, John D, Nulwala, Hunaid, & Brankovic, Stanko. Electrochemical Deposition of Aluminum-Based Coatings From Aqueous Systems. United States.
Watkins, John D, Nulwala, Hunaid, and Brankovic, Stanko. Mon .
"Electrochemical Deposition of Aluminum-Based Coatings From Aqueous Systems". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1598784.
@article{osti_1598784,
title = {Electrochemical Deposition of Aluminum-Based Coatings From Aqueous Systems},
author = {Watkins, John D and Nulwala, Hunaid and Brankovic, Stanko},
abstractNote = {The electroplating of aluminum has represented a challenge for the coatings industry for decades. The reactivity of aluminum metal leads to a very negative reduction potential. This leads to abundant gas evolution instead of aluminum reduction in water. Current aluminum deposition technology overcomes this limitation by excluding oxygen and water from the process with rigorously dry solvent and airtight plating tanks. These adaptations yield metallic aluminum depositions with significant impurities affecting its properties. In addition, this approach requires a great capital investment and cost of process maintenance. An alternative approach to Al electrodeposition has been developed based on the the use of organic ligands to stabilize the Al3+ ion in water-based solutions. By using a ligation approach, we can create aluminum species that remain stable in water while lowering the reduction potential of the aluminum complex by 0.5V. This improvement in reduction potential gives the possibility for the deposition of aluminum without significant competition from hydrogen evolution. With this platform we can deposit highly adherent aluminum-based layers on metal surfaces. The aluminum/aluminum oxide layers appear as thin, coherent and highly adherent coatings. This aluminum/alumina layer can then be chemically treated to achieve desirable surface properties which were previously inaccessible. For example, the coating can be made hydrophobic, highly adherent to different polymer coatings or even dyed using common anodizing dyes.},
doi = {},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {2020},
month = {2}
}