Electrophoretic Deposition of Graphene Oxide on Aluminum: Characterization, Low Thermal Annealing, Surface and Anticorrosive Properties

Abstract In the present work, graphene oxide (GO) was deposited on aluminum (Al) by cathodic electrophoretic deposition (EPD). The effects of low thermal annealing (50–200 °C) on hydrophobicity of Al–GO samples were investigated by water contact angle (WCA) measurement. The reduction of GO is confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDAX). The results of EDAX showed that the oxygen/carbon atomic ratio decreased after reduction and this has been confirmed by XPS analysis. The corrosion activity of GO-coated Al samples (Al–GO) was investigated using potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. The surface morphological characterization of bare Al and Al–reduced GO (samples after thermal annealing) was carried out by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) before and after immersion in sodium chloride (NaCl) solution. It was shown that bare samples were damaged after 10 days of immersion in 3.5% NaCl solution and cracks and pits developed during the immersion period. However, GO-coated samples were undamaged after immersion in NaCl solution.