RuO2-TiO2 mixed oxide composite coating for improvement of Al-alloy sacrificial anodes

It has been recently proved that RuO2 can act as an effective surface activator of aluminum alloy sacrificial anodes. TiO2 has the property of stabilizing RuO2 coating and resisting biofouling on metal surfaces. Hence, a mixed oxide catalytic coating of TiO2 and RuO2 can enhance the galvanic performance of aluminum alloy sacrificial anodes and resists biofouling on the anode surface. In the present work RuO2-TiO2 mixed oxide was coated on aluminum alloy sacrificial anodes. The large and uniform porous nature of the coating was found to facilitate efficient ion diffusion. The coating was found to persist on the anode even after 3 months of galvanic exposure. The anode having an optimum combination of the mixed oxide had 70% TiO2 as the major component in the coating. The catalytic coating significantly improved the performance of the anodes to a large extent.