One of the undergraduate experiments in the Lab was described as following. Two hybrid films of (3-methacryloxypropyl)-silsesquioxanes (MS) and MS modified with 15 wt-% tetraethoxysilane (MST), were prepared. The anticorrosion properties (corrosion current density, Icorr) of the bare aluminum alloy (AA) and the two films on AA were tested by electrochemical measurements with typical potentiodynamic polarization curves. The Icorr values of three samples are significantly different with the order of f-MST<f-MS<AA. After the experiments, two different 3D-amorphous cubic unit cells, cell(f-MS) and cell(f-MST), as models were employed to investigate self-diffusion coefficients (SDC) by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation for the NO2, SO2 and H2O molecules in the computing Lab. All three SDCs of NO2, SO2 and H2O diffusing in cell(f-MTS) were less than the coefficients in cell(f-MS), which validates the corresponding anticorrosion-experiment results and makes students confirm that the TEOS addition in the f-MTS coating indeed enhances the electrochemical corrosion resistance.

Validation for undergraduate experiments of the corrosion resistance by a molecular dynamic simulation

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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