Ambient Temperature, Solvent-Free Plating of Dense Aluminum Coatings

This proposed Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I project will demonstrate the feasibility of developing a room-temperature, non-toxic process for the application of protective, highly dense, corrosion-resistant aluminum and anodized aluminum coatings. This process will initially be used for applying aluminum coatings to complex geometry aircraft components. The proposed process will address issues associated with traditional plating methodologies (including operating temperature, organic solvent consumption, hazards, and environmental impact of solvent emissions), resulting in improvements in energy consumption, waste disposal and the reduction/elimination of VOC emissions. A previous project at Eltron successfully demonstrated plating of Al from ionic liquids with toluene co-solvent. The ionic liquid melt consisted of 35% toluene, representing a significant reduction in VOC for the process compared with existing processes. The proposed effort will build on these results, exploring two strategies to eliminate the need for organic co-solvents in this process: investigating other organic chloride salts and applying pulsed deposition techniques.