Reducing the energy cost of protective anodizing

Minimizing the carbon footprint of electrochemical processes is an emerging challenge for electrochemists and engineers. Here, a knowledge-based methodology for development of protective anodizing cycles for aluminium alloys, enabling simultaneous tuning of electrolyte concentration, composition, temperature and process time for reduced energy consumption is presented. In order to achieve the anticorrosion properties, the morphology of the porous anodic oxides is optimized by applying advanced potentialtime regimes and additions of environmentally, friendly corrosion inhibitors to the anodizing electrolyte to provide additional active protection. The anticorrosion performance of the porous anodic oxides is assessed rapidly by electrochemical noise analysis, with the electrochemical data validated by optical and electron-optical observations. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011.