NANOCOLORAÇÃO DE LIGAS DE ALUMÍNIO

Abstract

The use of aluminum becomes increasing because of the lightness of this metal and its high corrosion resistance. The anodization of the aluminum is now a well known and is widely used to increase the durability of the metal. This electrochemical technique forces the growth of oxide layer. The anodized layer has the peculiarity of having the nanotubes which allows the insertion of pigments and other compounds within these. The anodizing process, industrially used followed by coloration, according to the literature has been applied a current of 50 mA/cm2, dye concentration approximately 2-5 g / L, 15-18% sulfuric acid and temperature 40C. For these different factors, there is no a rigid control, therefore, there must be an optimization study of the process because the use of many reagents on an industrial scale can lead to an undesirable environmental impact, beyond the gas emission due to concentration of the acid used, even high energy expenditure. In this study it was used an organic dye to be deposited in the aluminum alloy AA6351 electrochemically anodized and studied, using a factorial design in the process to minimize the costs and to improve the metal protection. The experimental techniques used in this study were: chemometrics, anodizing, coloring by immersion, open circuit potential, anodic potentiostatic polarization, charge transfer resistance, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, microanalysis and Raman spectroscopy. The parameters for the experimental design, using chemometrics, were taken from the literature, as follows: current density, time and electrolyte concentration for the anodization, and dye concentration for the coloring. Measurements of charge transfer resistance (RCT) have demonstrated which tests would offer the greater protection. Two of the experimental tests, showed an RCT around by 2.85 x 108.cm2. These tests showed two situations: (1st) when anodization current density is high, less anodization time and dye are needed; (2nd) when anodization current density is low, much time and dye are needed. The polarization curves showed a current density of the samples anodized and colored are very small when compared with aluminum only polished. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy also showed greater resistance of the layer developed on the colored pieces. The scanning electron microscopy showed that the diameter of the nanopores of the aluminum anodized, in first case, are around by 11.7 nm, so, therefore, less dye is needed to fill the nanoporos layer. In second case, the nanopores diameters are smaller than the first case; it is around by 7.6 nm, requiring higher dye concentration. In optical microscopy it was observed that the parameter also influence the tone of the chosen color. The energy dispersive system and the microanalysis showed have no heavy metals on the surface of aluminum neither in the dye composition. Raman spectroscopy proved that compound is on surface and did not change in the coloring process.