| Scanning probe microscopy (SPM), accompanied by other electrochemical techniques, was used to characterize the corrosion protection of novel aircraft coatings and also used to study the electrodeposition of conducting polymer. The results showed that a combination of such techniques is very powerful in corrosion research and coating development. The first part of this dissertation is a comparison of two types of aircraft primer coatings: chromate-pigment-containing spray coat versus chromate-pigment-free E-coat. The results should prove useful in determining whether the E-coat should be considered as a replacement for the environmentally harmful primer coating currently used in the aircraft industry. The second part of this dissertation involves the systematic evaluation of plasma polymerized trimethylsilane (p-TMS) as an alternative chromate-free conversion coating for aluminum alloys. The evaluation was based on data from various techniques and different sources. We aimed to assess the anti-corrosion properties and to understand the anti-corrosion mechanism so that the optimum conditions and parameters to produce the most corrosion-resistant plasma p-TMS coatings could be predicted. The results revealed that a layer of aluminum oxide particles on the substrate may be very important to the plasma coating deposition and polymerization. Plasma poly TMS coating on clad Al 2024-T3 was very effective in protecting the alloy substrate in acidic media (0.1M HCl). Among various sample types, Al 2024-T3 alloy with a pure aluminum cladding plus a plasma O2+ pretreatment and a plasma TMS coating had the best corrosion resistance. The third part of this dissertation is about the corrosion protective properties of polyaniline. Our studies indicated that polyaniline exhibits some corrosion protection to a steel substrate. The probable mechanism of corrosion protection may originate from a newly formed passive oxide layer at the interface and not from any barrier property of the coating. The fourth part of this dissertation investigates polypyrrole electrodeposition on Al 2024-T3 using the electrochemical atomic force microscope (ECAFM). It was found that, under low current density, the polymer deposited as fibers, whereas under high current density, the polymer deposited as cauliflower-like film. The respective mechanisms for these two processes have been explored. |
