Protection against corrosion of magnesium alloys with both conversion layer and sol–gel coating

The anticorrosion performances of a system consisting of a phosphate based conversion layer and a hybrid sol–gel coating have been evaluated for the magnesium alloy Elektron21. The lone sol–gel coating affords a significant protection of the magnesium substrate. However, the presence of an intermediate conversion layer is presumed to improve the corrosion resistance of the system. The surface morphology of the protection coatings was characterized by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and white-light source interferometry. The corrosion behavior of the systems was analyzed by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The impedance measurements show that the presence of the added conversion layer increases the resistance of the whole system during immersion in a 0.05 M NaCl solution, compared to the single sol–gel coating.