Formation and properties of oxide coatings with immobilized zeolites obtained by plasma electrolytic oxidation of aluminum

Abstract

In this paper, we employed plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) of aluminum in a water solution of sodium tungstate (Na2WO4·2H2O) with the addition of the pure and Ce-loaded zeolites clinoptilolite and 13 X for the preparation of oxide coatings. The obtained coatings were characterized with respect to their morphologies and chemical and phase compositions using scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The prepared coatings contained γ-alumina, WO3, and metallic tungsten. The surface morphologies of the obtained coatings strongly depended on the PEO processing time; the roughness of all coatings increased with PEO time, while porosity decreased with PEO processing time as a result of microdischarge coalescence and growth. All coatings contained elements originating from the substrate and from the electrolytes. Coatings containing zeolites with Ce showed higher photoactivity than those with immobilized pure zeolites. The highest photocatalytic activity levels were observed for coatings containing immobilized Ce-exchanged clinoptilolite processed for 10 min. It was observed that both clinoptilolite and 13X zeolites improved the features of the PEO coatings in a similar manner, making natural and abundant clinoptilolite an excellent candidate for various applications.