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Project

Cr(VI)-free pre-treatments for adhesive bonding of aerospace Al alloys (FWOTM872)

Protecting metal products against damage and corrosion requires the application of organic coatings. This protection relies on stable attractive forces between atoms across the different materials. The interface is where these two different phases come into contact. Despite widespread application of coatings, the fundamental processes that result in the formation and breaking of interfacial bonds on the atomic and molecular level are not well understood. To design optimized adhesion and corrosion protection, we need to understand how bonds are initiated on the same scale at which these processes are taking place. Unfortunately, this is not possible for most surface analysis techniques and so far this was only achieved using virtual simulations. The innovative investigation we propose will experimentally monitor the interaction of specific coating-based functionalities in organic molecules with different atomic and molecular sites present on metal substrates. These dynamic atomic and molecular processes will be imaged in-situ by coupling an electrochemical cell to a scanning tunnelling microscope (EC-STM). Complimentary AFM-IR, XPS (NAP-XPS) and in-situ IR surface analysis methods will be used to characterise the nature of bonding. Combining the results together we aim to identify the initial structural and chemical aspects that lead to interfacial bond formation and breaking at atomic scale.
Date:1 Oct 2017 →  30 Sep 2021
Keywords:AI alloys, Adhesive bonding
Disciplines:Veterinary physiology, pathophysiology and biochemistry