Abstract:
This investigation focuses mainly on applied and fundamental research in a very relevant and important area - the corrosion protection of the most widely used metal materials such as structural steels. The latter are often subject to serious corrosion attacks, resulting in a number of economical damages, energy and material losses. The main objective is to create effective protective corrosion-resistant coatings or coating systems of various types on steel by: (1) Forming innovative sol-gel coatings [1] for galvanized steel - doped and /or undoped oxide coatings (single or multi-component), applied sequentially on galvanized steel at different thicknesses of the zinc coating; (2) Obtaining hybrid zinc coatings [2-4] with embedded polymeric based particles or corrosion inhibitors into the metal matrix; and (3) Developing environmentally friendly conversion coatings for galvanized steel [4]. Present investigations demonstrate some general ideas and possibilities for improving the protective properties of the ordinary zinc coatings by applying of materials which are non-toxic and non-harmful to the environment. The experimental techniques and apparatus used to achieve the end goals are: electrochemical methods for characterizing the protective properties (PD curves, polarization resistance - Rp, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy - EIS), XRD analysis, XPS analysis, SEM, TEM, etc.
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