Novel use of glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GDOES) to study corrosion of AA2024-T3 in the presence and absence of inhibitors Part 2: The use of elemental depth profiling to detect inhibitor species deposited on the AA2024-T3 surface in a model defect

Elemental depth profiling by glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy has been used to characterise the corrosion products on AA2024-T3. In previous work, the aluminium, oxygen and copper depth profiles were shown to provide information regarding surface roughening, the thickness of corroded layers and extent of copper de-alloying/relocation. In the present work, the study is extended to the detection of corrosion inhibitors deposited on the exposed alloy surface in a model defect. The work includes a comparison of hybrid coatings doped with inhibitors encapsulated in nanocontainers and with the direct addition of inhibitor species to the coating matrix. The work also investigates the effects of inhibitor addition to sol-gel coatings or primer systems or both, highlighting the possible synergistic effects of mixed inhibitor systems. Copyright (C) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.