Investigation of Carboxylic Acid-Neodymium Conversion Films on Magnesium Alloy.

The new carboxylic acid-neodymium anhydrous conversion films were successfully prepared and applied on the AZ91D magnesium alloy surface by taking absolute ethyl alcohol as solvent and four kinds of soluble carboxylic acid as activators. The corrosion resistance of the coating was measured by potentiodynamic polarization test in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution in pH 7.0. The morphology, structure, and constituents of the coating were observed by scanning electron microscope, energy dispersivespectrum, x-ray photoelectron spectrum, and Fourier infrared spectrometer. Results show that corrosion resistance properties of samples coated with four different anhydrous conversion films were improved obviously. The corrosion potential increased, corrosion current density decreased, and polarization resistance increased. Among these four kinds of conversion films the one added with phytic exhibits the best corrosion resistant property. The mechanism of anhydrous-neodymium conversion film formation is also analyzed in this paper. It reveals that the gadolinium conversion coating is mainly composed of stable NdO, MgO, Mg(OH), and carboxylate of Nd. And that the sample surface is rich in organic functional groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]