Corrosion behaviour of carbon fibre reinforced polymer/magnesium alloy hybrid laminates

•The carbon fibre reinforced polymer/uncoated Mg laminates suffer serious corrosion in NaCl solution.•The corrosion products are not effective in protecting magnesium alloys from dissolution.•Micro-arc oxidation coatings on Mg greatly improve the carbon fibre reinforced polymer/Mg laminates.•The corrosion rate of carbon fibre reinforced polymer/Mg laminates is lower compared with the Mg alloys. The corrosion behaviour of CFRP/uncoated or coated magnesium alloy hybrid laminates was investigated by immersion technique in 3.5% NaCl solution. The results show that the CFRP/uncoated magnesium alloy laminates suffer serious corrosion due to galvanic corrosion plus self-corrosion. The corrosion products are not effective in protecting magnesium from dissolution, leading to the fact that the corrosion rate remains a steady state after a short period of time. Micro-arc oxidation (MAO) coatings on magnesium alloy sheets greatly improve the corrosion-resistance of CFRP/magnesium alloy laminates, and the corrosion rate of the laminates decreases with increasing the immersion time.