Innovative sol-gel coatings for corrosion protection of connector housings

This paper presents the electrical properties of innovative sol-gel coatings for connectors. A first study has shown the feasibility of developing a conducting and anti-corrosion coating for connector housing based on sol-gel chemistry. Such coatings aimed at replacing cadmium and chromium (VI) as recommended by REACH and RoHS regulations must have equivalent properties. A large consortium has been established in order to tackle aspects of the project from the formulation, the characterizations and the scale-up phases. The electrical properties of the coatings are obtained with conductive fillers of various types. We present here electrical characterizations both at the macroscopic scale and at the microscopic scale and try to correlate the conduction to the various parameters involved in the complex mechanisms ruling the film formation.