Improvement in corrosion resistance of micro-arc oxidation coating on PVD Ti-coated aluminum alloy 7075

Surface treatments are always needed to enhance corrosion-resistant performance of aluminum (Al) alloys when they are used in seawater environments. The paper aimed to prepare the composite oxide ceramic coating on Al alloy 7075 by combining micro-arc oxidation (MAO) and magnetron sputtering technology. The Al substrate was precoated with titanium (Ti) layer by using the magnetron sputtering technology and then treated by MAO in the alkaline aluminate electrolyte, resulting in a composite MAO coating, which is composed of Al₂O₃ and TiO₂ along with the complex oxide (Al₂TiO₅). The potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were carried out to evaluate the corrosion performance of the MAO coatings in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution. Better corrosion resistance was observed for composite oxide coating than the reference MAO coating on the bare Al, as evidenced by the higher corrosion potential of −0.664 V versus Ag/AgCl and the lower corrosion current density of 4.41 × 10^-6 A/cm².