Galvanic corrosion protection of Al-alloy in contact with carbon fibre reinforced polymer through plasma electrolytic oxidation treatment

Al-alloy/carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) joint systems offer exceptionally lightweight, superior fatigue behaviour and impact resistance for aerospace applications. Nevertheless, the galvanic corrosion at the joint interfaces accelerates the adhesive failure and strength damage. In this work, oxidation of Al 7075 alloy was studied by employing plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) and thin film sulphuric acid anodizing (TFSAA) methods, addressing their galvanic corrosion (GC) protection performance in contact with CFRP. Structural and electrochemical characterisations were carried out in tandem with varied oxidation process parameters, revealing that high voltage PEO resulted in crystallized compact ceramic coating and thus improved GC protection. A decrease in the GC current by ~ 90% has been achieved by using the PEO coating at 700 V compared with the ~ 12% current reduction of commercial TFSAA coating. Further microstructure studies revealed that the improved GC protection of the crystallized PEO coating was realized by suppressing the initiation and propagation of localized pitting due to the improved electrical isolation between the Al-alloy/CFRP interfaces. A high voltage PEO process provides sufficient energy to produce uniform and crystalline ceramic coating consisting of Al(2)O(3) and mullite, which give rise to improved corrosion protection.