DURABILITY OF STEEL POLYMER ADHESION IN AN AQUEOUS ENVIRONMENT/

In this work, the durability of steel/polymer/steel assemblies in vari ous liquids (water, salt, acid and basic solutions) is studied. Two st eel substrates are compared: one without any surface treatment and the other one with a phosphatizing surface treatment. The polymer is an e thylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) grafted with maleic anhydride. T he wedge test is used in order to quantify the steel/polymer adherence before and during ageing. The results show that a rapid delamination is observed for the non-treated steel/EVA assemblies in all the studie d liquid. A cathodic delamination process is proposed to explain the d elamination mechanism. A good ageing resistance is observed for the ph osphatized steel/EVA assemblies, not only due to the corrosion resista nce of the steel substrate but also due to the insensibility of the in terfacial steel/polymer bonds of the studied liquids. (C) 1998 Elsevie r Science Ltd. All rights reserved.