The effect of hydrofluoric acid concentration in sulfuric acid-based desmutting solution for aluminium alloys

The natural oxide layer, which spontaneously covers the surface of aluminium and its alloys, is well adherent to the surface, but it does not show adequate corrosion resistance in many conditions. In order to improve the material anti-corrosion performance, it is necessary to replace the surface oxide by a conversion coating. The first step to do this is to prepare the alloy surface to subsequent treatments. The pre-treatment implemented before the conversion treatment is one of the main factors responsible for the performance of the conversion coating. It involves several phases, including desmutting that encompasses the part immersion in an acid or alkaline solution bath. In this work, the influence of hydrofluoric acid concentration in the desmutting bath’s formulation was investigated. The samples surface were characterised by using electrochemical techniques, glow discharge optical emission spectrometry and contact angle measurements.