In situ fabrication of blue ceramic coatings on wrought Al Alloy 2024 by plasma electrolytic oxidation

In situ formation of ceramic coatings on 2024 Al alloy with a blue color was successfully achieved using a plasma electrolytic oxidation process working at atmospheric pressure. This novel blue ceramic coating overcomes the shortcomings of surface treatments resulting from conventional dyeing processes by depositing organic dyes into the porous structure of anodic film, which has poor resistance to abrasion and rapid fading when exposed to sunlight. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy were employed to characterize the microstructure of the blue ceramic coating. The fabricated ceramic coating was composed of CoAl₂O₄, α-Al₂O₃, and γ-Al₂O_3. By controlling the working parameters, the distribution of the CoAl₂O₄ phase on the surface can be adjusted, and plays a key role in the appearance of the coating. Electrochemical testing, thermal cycling method, and pin-on-disk sliding wear testing were employed to evaluate corrosion, thermal cycling, and wear resistance of the ceramic coatings. The results indicate that the blue ceramic coating has a similar polarization resistance to that of conventional anodic film and can significantly enhance the corrosion resistance of aluminum alloy. There are no destructive horizontal cracks observed within the blue ceramic coating when subjected to 120 times of thermal cycling, which heats the samples up to 573 K and followed by submersion in water at room temperature for 10 min. Compared with the aluminum substrate as well as a conventional anodic film coated aluminum sample, the wear resistance of the blue ceramic coating coated sample was significantly increased while the coefficient of friction was decreased from 0.34 to 0.14.