Aluminum Anodization

Application ID: 49061


When anodizing aluminum, the surface is electrochemically altered to form an abrasive and corrosion-resistive Al2O3 film. The electrode kinetics during the process are only marginally affected as the oxide layer grows, so a stationary analysis of the current distribution is sufficient to determine the uniformity of this layer’s thickness.

Anode kinetics from experimental polarization data are used to investigate the uniformity of the anodization current density at three different temperatures, for a specified average current density. At higher temperatures, the cell potential is reduced while the current distribution and thickness become less uniform. This is attributed to lower activation losses (faster kinetics) at higher temperatures.

This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products: