Ankita Mohanty1,Cheng-Chu Chung1,Xiaoyang Liu1,Donald Vonk2,Kim Kisslinger3,Xiao Tong3,Gary Halada1,Bruce Ravel4,Stanislas Petrash2,Kate Foster2,Yu-chen Chen-Wiegart1,5
Stony Brook University1,Henkel Corporation2,Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory3,National Institute of Standards and Technology4,National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory5
Ankita Mohanty1,Cheng-Chu Chung1,Xiaoyang Liu1,Donald Vonk2,Kim Kisslinger3,Xiao Tong3,Gary Halada1,Bruce Ravel4,Stanislas Petrash2,Kate Foster2,Yu-chen Chen-Wiegart1,5
Stony Brook University1,Henkel Corporation2,Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory3,National Institute of Standards and Technology4,National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory5
Surface conversion coating is one of the most promising technologies for a wide range of industrial applications to protect the surface of alloy materials from corrosion, and to enhance the adhesion of decorative paints to treated metal components. Understanding the chemical stability and structural integrity of conversion coatings for their applications in an outer space environment for potential aerospace industry, is of great interest. Under extreme conditions of atomic oxygen, thermal cycling and ultra-high vacuum, the coating materials may undergo morphological and chemical changes. In this work, we utilized a multi-modal characterization method where synchrotron and laboratory X-ray techniques as well as electron microscopy, were combined to study the evolution of surface conversion coatings as a result of the exposure to the low-earth orbit environment in space. The samples were part of an MISSE mission, during which the samples were placed outside of the International Space Station and compared with the twin samples aged on Earth. We will discuss the influence of the space conditions on the surface conversion coatings.