Electrodeposition of Al-Cr-Mn Alloys from Chloroaluminate Ionic Liquids
Authors: Hussey Charles , Watts Heather 
Published: May 2020

Despite the emergence of many new ionic liquid systems or room-temperature molten salts, chloroaluminate ionic liquids are still one of the most versatile systems for the electrochemical surface finishing of metals. The most commonly studied chloroaluminate IL is the well-known mixture of AlCl3 and the quaternary ammonium chloride salt, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (EtMeImCl).1 Among the anhydrous, aprotic ILs prepared to date, this mixture still holds the record for the highest conductivity and lowest viscosity. Save for the need to protect it from exposure to moisture, it is undoubtedly one of the most versatile IL systems for electrochemistry. In most cases, the acidic composition of this IL proves to be the most valuable composition for surface finishing, owing to the presence of the coordinately unsaturated Lewis acidic species, Al2Cl7
-, which is readily reduced to Al metal via the reaction:

4Al2Cl7
- + 3e- ⇌ Al + 7AlCl4
- (1)

The electroplating of Al from chloroaluminate ILs, such as AlCl3-EtMeImCl, is one of the most thoroughly studied processes in the field of ionic liquid electrochemistry, as attested in a recent review.2 However, much less attention has been devoted to the electrodeposition of aluminum alloys from these ILs, many of which have very useful properties. Stable alloys can be obtained during the electrodeposition of Al if certain low valent transition metal ions, M
z

+, that are reduced negative of the potential required for the reaction shown in Eq. 1 are added to the acidic IL, e.g., Cr2+, Ti2+, V2+, Mo2+, and Mn2+, to name a few.2 In this case, it is possible to prepare aluminum-transition metal alloys:

xM(AlCl4)
p

(p-z)- + 4(1-x)Al2Cl7
- + [3-(3-z)x]e- ⇌ M
x
Al1-x
+ [7(1-x) +px]AlCl4
- (2)

where x represents the fraction of the transition metal in the M
x
Al1-x
alloy. For some values of x, these so-called “overpotential alloys” form single-phase metallic glasses. In this case, these amorphous, non-equilibrium alloys exhibit a greatly enhanced resistance to chloride pitting corrosion relative to pure Al. Ternary alloys with metallic glass phases can also be produced by adding a second transition metal to the acidic IL. Articles have appeared in The Journal describing the electrodeposition and properties of such aluminum alloys containing Mn + Mo,3 Mo + Ti,4 and Mn + W.5 In general, coatings prepared with ternary alloys display enhanced resistance to chloride pitting corrosion compared to the corresponding binary alloys. In this poster, we describe recent work on the electrodeposition of Al-Cr-Mn ternary alloys.

References:

1J. S. Wilkes, J. A. Levisky, R. A. Wilson, and C. L. Hussey, Inorg. Chem., 35, 1168 (1982).

2T. Tsuda, G. R. Stafford, and C. L. Hussey, J. Electrochem. Soc., 164, H5007 (2017).

3T. Tsuda, C.L. Hussey, and G. R. Stafford, J. Electrochem. Soc., 152, C620 (2005).

4T. Tsuda, S. Arimoto, S. Kuwabata, and C. L. Hussey, J. Electrochem. Soc., 155, D256 (2008).

5T. Tsuda, Y. Ikeda, A. Iminashi, S. Kusumoto, S. Kuwabata, G. R. Stafford, and C. L. Hussey, J. Electrochem. Soc., 162, D405 (2015).