Research on Corrosion Behavior of Cold Sprayed Copper Coating on Aluminum Substrate

Abstract Due to its low processing temperature, cold-sprayed coatings tend to exhibit many advantages over traditional thermal sprayed coatings, such as, lower porosity, oxidation and residual stress levels. These characteristics impart the improved anti-corrosion performance of the cold-sprayed coatings. However, it is not known how much these factors influence the corrosion performance of them. In addition, there are few results on the electrochemical behavior difference between cold and thermally sprayed coatings. In this article, as-deposited cold-sprayed copper, aluminum bulk material, arc-sprayed copper and pure copper are tested with electrochemical methods to compare their electrochemical behaviors in natural seawater. The electrochemical methods included the potential-dynamic polarization curve and electrochemical impedance spectrum. The results indicated that there is no significant difference in the corrosion potential between cold-sprayed and bulk copper materials. The potential of cold-sprayed copper is much different from that of the arc-sprayed one. Polarization curves indicated that the corrosion rate is significantly higher for arc-sprayed copper. The electrochemical impedance spectrum shows that there is no difference in electrode interface structure between cold-sprayed and bulk copper materials. Based on these results it is inferred that the higher corrosion rate for arc-sprayed copper was caused by its high porosity level and oxidation degree.