Surface oxide formation during corona discharge treatment of AA 1050 aluminium surfaces

Abstract Atmospheric plasmas have traditionally been used as a non-chemical etching process for polymers, but the characteristics of these plasmas could very well be exploited for metals for purposes more than surface cleaning that is presently employed. This paper focuses on how the corona discharge process modifies aluminium AA 1050 surface, the oxide growth and resulting corrosion properties. The corona treatment is carried out in atmospheric air. Treated surfaces are characterized using XPS, SEM/EDS, and FIB-FESEM and results suggest that an oxide layer is grown, consisting of mixture of oxide and hydroxide. The thickness of the oxide layer extends to 150–300 nm after prolonged treatment. Potentiodynamic polarization experiments show that the corona treatment reduces anodic reactivity of the surface significantly and a moderate reduction of the cathodic reactivity.