Behavior of Impurity and Minor Alloying Elements during Surface Treatments of Aluminum

Abstract

The behavior of impurity and minor elements during electropolishing, chemical polishing, and anodizing treatments is examined for 99.99% Al and Al-0.2 atom % Mn alloy containing iron, copper, and silicon impurities in the parts per million range. Copper is enriched strongly, to at least during the two polishing treatments. Assuming that the copper is located in a metal layer of thickness 1 nm, just beneath the surface film, the enrichment corresponds to an average concentration of about 5 atom % copper. In contrast, iron and silicon impurities were not enriched significantly by the various treatments. Manganese was enriched in the Al-0.2 atom % Mn alloy to about Manganese appeared to interact with copper impurity in the alloy to reduce the level of copper enrichment. The factors determining the degree of enrichment include the Gibbs free energies per equivalent for formation of the various impurity and alloying element oxides, interactions between coenriching elements, and the location of the particular atoms in the metal, especially the proportions of the atoms in solid solution, in fine particulates, and segregated at cellular and grain boundaries. © 2002 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.