Effect of anti-corrosive performance, roughness and chemical composition of pre-treatment layer on the overall performance of the paint system on cold-rolled steel

Many fundamental researches about the effect of some basic properties of a pre-treatment layer, such as anti-corrosive performance, surface roughness and chemical composition on the overall performance of paint systems were investigated. Three kinds of pre-treatment layers: bare polyacrylic acid (PAA) layer, Mo based layer and Mo doped PAA layer were deposited on cold-rolled steel surfaces through immersing the steel samples in the corresponding solution. The electrochemical measurements results indicated that after been treated in PAA solution, the steels became vulnerable to corrosion and the Mo based layer and Mo doped PAA layer could improve the corrosion resistance of steel to a certain degree. The values of root-mean-square roughness of the bare steel, bare PAA layer, Mo based layer and Mo doped PAA layer were 15.0 nm, 11.3 nm, 13.0 nm and 59.1 nm, respectively. The corresponding values of arithmetic average roughness of the samples were 16.9 nm, 10.5 nm, 9.1 nm and 41.0 nm, respectively. The spectroscopy results indicated that the surface of the bare PAA and Mo doped PAA layer covered steels contained abundant COOH groups and the composition of Mo based layer covered steel surface was mainly oxides. According to the impact test and neutral salt spray test results, the corrosion mitigation performance, microstructure and chemical composition of the pre-treatment layer could all affect the overall performance of the paint system. All the results indicated that the anti-corrosive performance was not the only index, the microstructure and chemical composition also needed to be considered in the development of a new generation pre-treatment layer.