Active protection coatings with layered double hydroxide nanocontainers of corrosion inhibitor

Novel LDH-based nanocontainers of corrosion inhibitor are developed in the present work. The reservoirs are composed by nanostructured layered double Mg/Al and Zn/Al hydroxides with divanadate anions located in the interlayer regions. The nanocrystalline LDHs (layered double hydroxides) are able to release vanadate ions in a controllable way. XRD, EDS and SEM methods were used in this work to study morphological and structural properties of the synthesized LDH powders. Corrosion protection effect of the LDH powders directly added to corrosive electrolyte or to commercial coatings used for aeronautical application has been studied by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and standard accelerated corrosion tests. Aluminium alloy 2024 was used here as substrate. The results demonstrate that both of the LDH pigments being added to corrosive media confer corrosion inhibition effect, especially Zn/Al based nanocontainers obtained by the anion-exchange approach. The coatings doped with Zn/Al LDH-nanocontainers provide well-defined self-healing effect and confer corrosion protection properties superior than currently used environmentally unfriendly chromate-based systems. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.