Active corrosion protection of micro-arc oxidation-based composite coating on magnesium alloy: multiple roles of ionic liquid modified layered double hydroxide

Multifunctional composite coatings have been extensively used to protect metal substrates from corrosion. However, the use of ionic liquids (ILs) to modify the micro-arc oxidation/layered double hydroxides (MAO/LDHs) composite coating, to our best knowledge, has not been reported for the corrosion protection on metal substrates. It is thus necessary to prepare the ILs-modified MAO/LDHs composite coatings and understand in depth their corrosion resistance and active anticorrosive mechanism. Herein, a composite coating is constructed by introducing the MgAl-LDH modified by a choline 3-morpholinopropanesulfonate [Ch][MOPS] ionic liquid on an MAO film (CM-LDH/MAO). It is found that the CM-LDH/MAO composite coating shows the optimal corrosion protection on magnesium alloy, with a corrosion current density of 7.15×10–10 A cm–2, clearly lower than those of the MAO and LDH/MAO coatings. More importantly, a small pitting appears at the edge of the CM-LDH/MAO film only after long-term exposure of 216 h in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution. Such an improvement of corrosion resistance can be ascribed to the synergetic mechanism including the physical barrier of the composite coating, the self-repairing ability of the LDH nanosheets on the microporous flaws of the MAO film, as well as the formation effect of the Mg-based chelates by the adsorption of the [Ch]+ cations and the re-adsorption of the [MOPS]– anions released from the LDH interlayers.