Ni–P coating on AZ31 magnesium alloy and its crystallization

Amorphous Ni-P coating was plated on AZ31 magnesium alloy via the electroless plating technique, and the plated alloy was subsequently annealed. X-ray dif- fraction （XRD）, scanning electron microscopy （SEM）, energy dispersive spectroscopy （EDS）, and differential scanning calorimetry （DSC） were used to characterize the coating. The results show that the hardness of the coating is much higher than that of bare magnesium alloy, which further increases after crystallization. The electrochemical polarization and salt spray tests show that the coating exhibits a much higher corrosion resistance than that of the bare magnesium alloy. Moreover, the crystallized coating still exhibits a much stronger corrosion resistance than that of the bare magnesium alloy, although its corrosion resistance is lower than that of the as-plated one.