ROLE OF ALLOYING ELEMENTS, ELECTROLYTE

AND ELECTROPOLISHING ON
COLOR ANODIZING OF ALUMINUM
Sourav Uday Jannu and Viswanathan Rajan
Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, Dayananda Sagar University,
Hosur main road, Kudlu gate, Bengaluru - 560068

INTRODUCTION SEM MICROGRAPHS OF ANODIZED ALUMINUM

Anodizing of aluminum: Anodizing is an electrochemical
SPECIMEN
process that converts the metal surface into a decorative,
durable, corrosion-resistant, anodic oxide finish.
Objectives:-
Electro polishing for color anodising .
Comparison between H2SO4 and oxalic acid for good porous
structure.
Study of alloying elements Fig 1
Figure 1 represents the SEM micrographs of long porous
structure formed after anodising.

ROLE OF ALLOYING ELEMENTS IN ANODIZING

ANODIZING PARAMETERS:
Anode :- Pure Aluminum
Cathode:- Graphite
MATERIALS , METHODS AND RESULTS Electrolyte:- 15% H2SO4 + 85% Distilled water
ELECTROPOLISHING PARAMETERS: Voltage : 15V
Anode: Aluminum specimen IMAGE PROCESSING USING MATLAB
Cathode: Graphite Image processing is an important tool of MATLAB
Electrolyte: 20% Perchloric acid + 80% Ethanol By using MATLAB we will be able to find the uniformity of
Voltage : 20V colouring very accurately.
Time: 1 Min

ANODIZING PARAMETERS:
Anode :- Aluminum specimen
Cathode:- Graphite
Electrolyte:- 15% H2SO4 + 85% Distilled Water Fig 2 Fig 3
Voltage:- 12 – 15 V Figure 2 shows the image analysis for a coloured anodised
sample . Figure 3 shows the image analysis of SEM
COMPARISON OF COLOR ANODIZED SPECIMENS micrographs .
OF ELECTROPOLISHED AND WITHOUT CONCLUSIONS
ELECTROPOLISHING:

Anodization of pure aluminum ,alloy aluminum is studied

with different electrolytes like H2SO4 and oxalic acid and
Without electropolishing uneven results have been checked by colouring and using mathlab
Surface is formed leading to image analysis and SEM Micrographs uniformity and
formation of porous layers have been characterised .
Non uniformity of the surface

Anodized without Anodized after

electropolishing electropolishing
REFERENCES
COMPARISON OF COLOR ANODIZED SPECIMENS
IN DIFFERENT ELECTROLYTES: • (1) Ali, H. O. Review of Porous Anodic Aluminium Oxide
(AAO) Applications for Sensors, MEMS and Biomedical
ANODISING PARAMETERS:
Devices. Trans. IMF 2017, 95 (6), 290–296.
Anode :- Pure Aluminum
• (2) Donahue, C. J.; Exline, J. A. Anodizing and Coloring
Cathode:- Graphite Aluminum Alloys. J. Chem. Educ. 2014, 91 (5), 711–715.
Electrolyte:- 3.2%(0.3mol of oxalic acid)+97% of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Distilled water The Authors would like to thank Mr. Arul Kumar.G, research
Voltage :- 35 – 40 V scholar at IIT Madras for helping in taking SEM micrographs.