Titlul proiectului: “Environmentally-friendly Cerium-based Coatings for Corrosion Protection of Aluminium Alloys”

Acronim: ECOCCEALPROT

Tipul proiectului: National, PED (Experimental Demonstrative Projects)

Project period: 24 months

The ECOCCEALPROT project is related to the development, optimization and validation of environmentally-friendly cerium-based coatings for corrosion protection of aluminium alloys.
The coatings have been previously developed at the technological concept level (TRL 2) on AU4G1 Al alloy (AlCu4Mg1) under the experimental activities of ALSSOXMET and MATSOL-T national projects as well as of several bilateral collaborations with universities from Italy and Germany.
In addition, the project also intends to valorize the previous expertize in the field of nanostructured coatings and materials involving ionic liquid analogues (ILAs) media (NANOCOATIL M-Era Net project) through the development of novel cerium-based coatings on Al alloy substrates using different ILAs-based systems.
The selected coatings intended to be developed are based on layered double hydroxides (LDHs) consisting in Li-Al hydroxides, also known as hydrotalcite type (HT) with Ce insertion/doping, involving aqueous and ionic liquid analogues systems.
The new technologies represent environmentally friendly alternatives to conventional chromate-based coatings and they are mainly intended for the aeronautical industry, but for other industrial sectors, including automotive and civil engineering as well. As a result of the proposed experimental and testing activities fully operational Ce based chemical conversion technologies for EN AW 2007; 2017; 7075 Al alloys protection are expected to be obtained, also able to accomplish the specific requirements of the participating partner. Therefore, a TRL 4 – technology validated in laboratory will be achieved as a result of the present project implementation.
It should be mentioned that the new proposed technologies and obtained conversion layers meet the environmental standards in term of procedure and end of life treatment; they do not produce highly toxic waste materials as in the case of classical chromate coatings currently used.