Corrosion Protection of 6061 Aluminum Alloys by Sol-Gel Coating Modified with ZnLaAl-LDHs

Abstract

In this work, ZnLaAl layered double hydroxides (LDHs) were prepared by the co-precipitation method, and the ZnLaAl-LDHs nanosheets were embedded in sol-gel coating for the corrosion protection of 6061 aluminum alloys. The structure, morphology, and long-term anti-corrosion performance of sol-gel coating modified with ZnLaAl-LDHs were investigated. The structure and morphology analysis showed that nanosheets of ZnLaAl-LDHs are finer than those of ZnAl-LDHs, with the results suggesting that the La can refine the size of LDHs’ nanosheets and improve their nucleation rate. The results of long-term corrosion tests showed that the sol-gel coating with ZnLaAl-LDHs exhibits higher corrosion resistance and better stability compared with the sol-gel coating with ZnAl-LDHs, which indicates that the addition of La enhances the anti-corrosion performance of the LDHs and improves the stability of sol-gel coating with LDHs. Finally, the formation mechanism of ZnLaAl-LDHs and the corrosion mechanism of sol-gel coating with ZnLaAl-LDHs on 6061 aluminum alloys are both discussed in detail.