Corrosion mitigation of rare-earth metals containing magnesium EV31A-T6 alloy via chrome-free conversion coating treatment

Highlights: • Protective stannate coatings have been proposed for rare-earth-EV31A-T6 magnesium alloy. • A simple coating method based on direct treatment of EV31A-T6 in a diluted stannate was found promising. • Surface modification prior to stannate coating offer no substantial advantage over directly coating. • Stannate conversion coatings decrease corrosion rates by a factor of 1/7. • The coating does not display any self-healing characteristics as shown in AZ91D. -- Abstract: Magnesium alloys posses unique mechanical and physical characteristics making them attractive light-weight materials for several strategic industries such as electronics, computer, automotive and aerospace. Due to their high chemical reactivity and poor corrosion resistance, the protection of magnesium alloys from corrosion is one of the hottest topics in materials science and engineering. Addition of rare-earth metals (RE) as alloying elements to magnesium alloys is one of the common approaches to improve their mechanical properties and, sometimes, the corrosion resistance. However, the potential difference between the RE metals phase formed in the Mg matrix enhances the galvanic corrosion at the interfaces where RE metals inert phase acts as cathode and the active Mg matrix acts as anode. This paper introduces a simple one-step clean conversion coating treatment for improving the protection of RE containing magnesium EV31A-T6 alloy in Cl− media