Formation of chromate conversion coatings on aluminum and its alloys: An in situ XANES study

In situ X-ray adsorption near-edge structure (XANES) has been used to investigate the formation of chromate conversion coatings on pure Al, commercial Al alloys (AA 1100, AA2024, and AA7075), and a series of binary Al-Cu alloys. The method employed cells designed to determine the growth of the total chromium [Cr(total)] and hexavalent chromate [Cr(VI)] in the chromate conversion coating (CCC) as a function of exposure time to a chromate solution. Three sets of data were obtained, where (i) the At was exposed to only a limited amount of solution; (ii) the chromate solution was excluded after short periods of repeated exposures to the solution; and (iii) the Al was exposed continuously to the chromate solution. All the results showed a very rapid initial growth within the first seconds, followed by a continued increase in thickness for exposures up to 1 h. Measurements with Al-Cu binary alloys demonstrated that the difference observed in AA2024 and AA1100 may not be due to Cu alloying. The proportion of Cr(VI) in the coatings becomes approximately constant after 180 s of exposure for all the specimens examined, even though the coatings continued to grow.