The Technology
Conductive coatings are of great importance for applications including dissimilar metals joining which needs continuous electrical conductivity as part of design considerations. Magnesium has galvanic corrosion with any other metal. Therefore, it’s impossible to use metallic layers on magnesium as conductive coatings. The option is to build thin chemical conversion layers which have low electrical resistance. Chromium+6 was the preferred coating for many years, but due to its toxicity a replacement us needed.
Clean, green, corrosion resistant coatings applied on a selected Mg alloy that have a relatively high conductivity are needed. Several types of coatings are showing very good performance as conversion coatings:
- Coatings based on stannate permanganate or phosphate additives
- Intrinsically conducting polymers (ICP) such as polyaniline (PAni) and polypyrrole (PPy)
- Deposition of coatings via PVD techniques such of silicides (e.g. TiSi2), nitrides (e.g. TiN), oxides (e.g. TiO2) but also metals (e.g. Ti)
Advantages
- Green conversion coating materials
Applications and Opportunities
- Green magnesium coatings for harsh environments
- Avionic or automotive parts
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