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The use of sol-gel film as pre-treatment for tinplate used in the canning industry

Abstract:

Tinplate cans are extensively used in the food packaging industry. The regular practice includes a passivation process, usually based on chromate films. Although they have good performance, their contaminant and unhealthy character makes necessary the research of new alternatives. The present work proposes the use of films based on vinyltrimethoxysilane precursor, synthesized by sol-gel technique, as an alternative to the traditional chromate pre-treatments. Different techniques were employed to characterize the obtained film: Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray, mechanical profilometry and X-ray diffraction. The corrosion resistance was evaluated by polarization tests and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The obtained results suggest that the new technology can offer higher corrosion resistance at short immersion time; nevertheless, it is necessary to improve the formulation in order to obtain better performance. .© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.