Ilbeom Choi

Contact angle and wettability of hybrid surface-treated metal adherends

Adhesion performance of adhesively bonded metal joints with aluminum and stainless steel was much dependent on the surface treatment of the adherends. This work was aimed at optimizing hybrid surface treatments to improve wettability of metal surfaces and strength of adhesive metal joints, which was a combination of mechanical, chemical, and energetic surface treatment methods. The surface free energies and wettability of hybrid surface-treated metal adherends were measured for different treatment conditions with abrasion, grit blast, sulfuric acid etching, phosphoric acid anodizing, silane treatment, plasma treatment, and flame treatment. The surface morphology and chemical composition of the metal adherends were investigated by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and the bond strengths of the single-lap joints composed of aluminum and stainless steel adherends were measured with respect to hybrid surface treatment conditions. From the experiments, an effective hybrid surface treatment condition was suggested for metal surfaces with super-hydrophilic characteristics. Also, the failure mode of adhesive metal joints was evaluated by photo-surface analysis method.

Bonding characteristics and corrosion resistance of silane–cerium-treated aluminum adherend

A silane–cerium treatment was applied on an aluminum adherend to simultaneously improve the bonding performance and corrosion resistance of the adhesively bonded aluminum joint in cryogenic applications, such as with liquefied natural gas containment tanks. The lap shear strengths and corrosion performances of the adhesively bonded joints composed of treated aluminum adherends were measured with respect to the silane–cerium treatment and the surface pretreatment on the aluminum adherend. The bonding characteristics of the aluminum adherend were investigated by measuring the water contact angle and conducting the potentiodynamic polarization test after the aluminum adherends with different surface treatments of silane–cerium were immersed in a 0.5 M NaCl solution. In addition, the surfaces were analyzed with scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to characterize the chemical compositions of the silane–cerium-treated aluminum adherend. The experimental results show that an appropriate silane–cerium treatment on the aluminum adherend produces an effective corrosion-resistant layer and that it has a highly reliable bonding characteristic for the adhesive joint at a cryogenic temperature of −150 °C.