Electrochemical behaviour of silica basic hybrid coatings deposited on stainless steel by dipping and EPD

The aim of this work is the characterisation of the corrosion behaviour of stainless steel (AISI 304) substrates coated by dipping and electrophoretic deposition (EPD) from a sol–gel basic sol. Particulate silica sols (labelled NaSi) were prepared by basic catalysis from ethyltriethoxysilane (TEOS), methyltriethoxysilane (MTES) and sodium hydroxide. Coatings between 2 and 10 μm were prepared by using concentrated and diluted sols by dipping and EPD process and the corrosion behaviour of the coated substrates were studied through potentiodynamic and impedance spectroscopy measurements (EIS). Potentiodynamic studies of coatings produced by dipping reveal a strong dependence of the protective properties with the concentration of the sol. This behaviour was confirmed by EIS showing that only the coatings obtained from concentrated sol present enough protective properties. On the contrary, EPD coatings prepared from diluted NaSi sol showed an excellent corrosion resistance, maintaining a pure capacitive behaviour for long periods of immersion. EPD deposition is thus proposed as a good alternative method for obtaining thicker and denser coatings with good protective properties from dilute and stable sols.