Preparation of Aluminum Coatings by Atmospheric Plasma Spraying and Dry-Ice Blasting and Their Corrosion Behavior

Aluminum coating, as an example of spray coating material with low hardness, was deposited by atmospheric plasma spraying while dry-ice blasting was applied during the deposition process. The deposited coatings were characterized in terms of microstructure, porosity, phase composition, and the valence states. The results show that the APS aluminum coatings with dry-ice blasting present a porosity of 0.35 ± 0.02%, which is comparable to the bulk material formed by the mechanical compaction. In addition, no evident oxide has been detected, except for the very thin and impervious oxide layer at the outermost layer. Compared to plasma-sprayed Al coatings without dry-ice blasting, the adhesion increased by 52% for Al substrate using dry-ice blasting, while 25% for steel substrate. Corrosion behavior of coated samples was evaluated in 3.5 wt.% NaCl aqueous using electrochemistry measurements. The electrochemical results indicated that APS Al coating with dry-ice blasting was more resistant to pitting corrosion than the conventional plasma-sprayed Al coating.