Marcel Simor, Ales Fiala, Dusan Kovacik, Pavel Hlidek, Aike Wypkema, Robert Kuipers

Corrosion protection of a thin aluminium layer deposited on polyester

Surface and Coatings Technology 201 (2007) 7802-7812

Organosilicon plasma polymer layers were deposited by surface dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) at atmospheric pressure, in an attempt to enhance the corrosion protection of a reflective aluminium (Al) layer applied on a polyester (PET) fabric. A number of tests were carried out to characterize the improvement of corrosion resistance - namely sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), water vapor and Kesternich tests - as a function of plasma treatment time, type of carrier gas, admixture of oxygen, amount of hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) precursor supplied to plasma and post-plasma-treatment heating. Moreover, plasma-deposited protective films were characterized by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), infrared spectroscopy (DRIFT FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). While aluminium was consumed in the Na2CO3 corrosive solution within a few minutes for the untreated surface, the optimally performing plasma polymerized layers revealed an extraordinary corrosion resistance. Furthermore, the best protective organosilicon coatings showed only a 1-2% absolute reduction of reflection compared to the untreated fabric, over the complete solar spectrum (250-2500 nm). (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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