The effect of NaOH concentration on the properties of electrolytic plasma processing (EPP) coating formed on AZ61A Mg alloy is studied. Various types of EPP were employed on magnesium alloy AZ61A in a silicate bath with different concentrations of NaOH additive. Analysis of the composition and structure of the coating layers was carried out using an Xray diffractometer (XRD) and a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results showed that the oxide coating layer mainly consisted of MgO and Mg2SiO4; its porosity and thickness were highly dependent on the NaOH concentration. The Vickers hardness was over 900 HV for all the coatings. The oxide layer with 3 g/l of NaOH concentration exhibited the highest hardness value (1220 HV) and the lowest wear rate. Potentiodynamic testing of the 3 g/l NaOH concentration showed that this concentration had the highest corrosion resistance value of 2.04 × 105 Ωcm2; however, the corrosion current density value of 5.80 × 10−7 A/cm2 was the lowest such value.

In this work, AlON-Al2O3 coatings were prepared on Al2021 alloy by the electrolytic plasma processing (EPP) method. The experimental electrolytes include: 2 g/l NaOH as the electrolytic conductive agent, 10 g/l Na2AlO2 as the alumina formative agent, and 0.5 g/l NaNO2, NaNO3, and NH4NO3 as the nitride inducing agents. The effects of different nitrogen inducing agents were studied by a combined compositional and structural analyses of the ceramic coatings carried out by Xray diffractometry (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for the specimens EPP-treated at room temperature for 15 min under a hybrid voltage of 260 DC along with an AC 50 Hz power supply (200 V). Microhardness tests and wear tests were carried out to correlate the evolution of the microstructure and the resulting mechanical properties. Potentiodynamic polarizations and immersion corrosion tests were carried out in 3.5wt% NaCl water solutions under static conditions in order to evaluate the corrosion behavior of the coated samples. The results demonstrate that NaNO2 is proven to be a good nitrogen inducing agent to produce high quality AlON-Al2O3 ceramic coatings.