Corrosion behaviour of the AZ31 magnesium alloy and surface treatments for its corrosion protection

This thesis contains most of the research activity carried on during my PhD study at the Corrosion Study Centre “A. Daccò”, University of Ferrara (Italy), from January 2007 to December 2009, with Professor Fabrizio Zucchi and Professor Cecilia Monticelli as my supervisors. The PhD was financed by the “Fondazione Aldo e Cele Daccò per la ricerca scientifica” – Lugano (Svizzera). The main topic of my PhD has been the study of corrosion behaviour of magnesium alloys, in particular AZ31 alloy (a magnesium-aluminium alloy that find applications in the automotive fields) and the anti-corrosion methods, such as corrosion inhibition and surface treatments, for the protection of AZ31 alloy from corrosion