Electrodeposition of Zn-Ni, Zn-Fe and Zn-Ni-Fe alloys

Zn-Fe, Zn-Ni and Zn-Ni-Fe coatings were electrodeposited galvanostatically on mild steel from acidic baths (pH 3.5) consisted of ZnCl₂, NiCl₂, FeCl₂, gelatin, sulfanilic (p-aminobenzenesulfonic) acid and ascorbic acid. Cyclic voltammetry showed that the effect of gelatin was more pronounced than that of sulfanilic acid, and that the deposition of the ternary alloy behaved differently from the deposition of the binary alloys. In all three systems, the Faradaic efficiency was higher than 88%, the rate of Zn deposition was heavily influenced by mass-transport limitation at high applied current densities, and the deposition was of anomalous type. For each applied current density, the concentrations of Ni and Fe in the ternary alloy were higher than the corresponding concentrations in the binary alloys. The hardness of Zn-Ni coatings was the highest, while that of Zn-Fe coatings was the lowest. The Zn-Ni-Fe coatings were the smoothest, had distinguished surface morphology, and contained ZnO in the bulk, not just on the surface. The lowest corrosion rate in each alloy system (214, 325 and 26 μm year⁻¹ for Zn-Ni, Zn-Fe and Zn-Ni-Fe, respectively) was characteristic of coatings deposited at 30, 30 and 40 mA cm^− 2, respectively. The higher corrosion resistance of the ternary alloy was also reflected by a higher corrosion potential, a higher impedance and a higher slope of the Mott-Schottky line. The enhanced corrosion behavior of the ternary alloy was thus attributed to its chemical composition, phase content, roughness and the synergistic effect of Ni and Fe on the n-type semiconductor surface film.