Corrosion behavior of aluminum-carbon fiber/epoxy sandwich composite exposed on NaCl solution

Abstract

For years, the aeronautical industry has employed different types of materials to satisfy its high-performance requirements. Fiber-metal laminates are used due to their combination of lighter weight and the high mechanical properties of reinforced metal and carbon. We therefore made two different composites of laminate-metal and laminate-metal-laminate of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer and aluminum with an ALCLAD layer. The samples were characterized by salt fog (0, 48, and 96 h) at 5 wt% NaCl and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) with an electrolyte of 3.5 wt% NaCl. All samples were studied by electron scanning microscopy (SEM). The results demonstrated that the samples of laminate-metal-laminate presented an adsorption process after 0 and 48 h of salt fog exposition; meanwhile, the samples of laminate-metal showed a capacitive behavior for all the samples; however, corrosion resistance decreased when the salt fog exposition time increased.