LAUSR

Abstract Improvement of corrosion resistance is one of the main goals in developing plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) ceramic coatings on AZ31 magnesium alloys. In this study, ceramic coatings were deposited on AZ31 magnesium alloys by PEO technique in electrolytes containing 10 g/l sodium phosphate (Na3PO4) and 1.5 g/l sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at different concentrations of ZnO nanoparticles and current density of 7.1 A/dm2 for 10 min. To investigate the corrosion behavior of the samples, they were placed in Hank's solution, while Tafel polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were used. X-ray diffraction (XRD) together with field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) techniques were employed to investigate the coatings. XRD results showed that the prepared PEO layers mainly consist of ZnO, Mg, and Mg3(PO4)2 phases. Corrosion test results showed that the use of ZnO nanoparticles improved the corrosion resistance of PEO ceramic coatings in Hank's solution. In contrast, the best result was obtained by using the electrolyte containing 6 g/l ZnO nanoparticles with a corrosion current density of 0.08 µA/cm2 and corrosion potential of -1.4615 VAg/AgCl. Also, EIS results showed the corrosion resistance of the mentioned coating as 1.05  ×  106 Ω.cm2.