Ceramic coated Y1 magnesium alloy surfaces by microarc oxidation process for marine applications

The magnesium alloys occupy an important place in marine applications, but their poor corrosion resistance, wear resistance, hardness and so on, have limited their application. To meet these defects, some techniques are developed. Microarc oxidation is a one such recently developed surface treatment technology under anodic oxidation in which ceramic coating is directly formed on the surface of magnesium alloy, by which its surface property is greatly improved. In this paper, a dense ceramic oxide coating, ∼20 μm thick, was prepared on an Y1 magnesium alloy through microarc oxidation in a Na3SiO3-Na2WO4-KOH-Na2EDTA electrolytic solution. The property of corrosion resistance of ceramic coating was studied by CS300P electrochemistry-corrosion workstation, and the main impact factor of the corrosion resistance was also analysed. Microstructure and phase composition were analysed by SEM and XRD. The microhardness of the coating was also measured. The basic mechanism of microarc coating formation is explained in brief.