Corrosion resistant Zn-Co alloy coatings deposited using saw-tooth current pulse

Abstract

Micro/nanostructured multilayer coatings of Zn-Co alloy were developed periodically on mild steel from acid chloride bath. Composition modulated multilayer alloy (CMMA) coatings, having gradual change in composition (in each layer) were developed galvanostatically using saw-tooth pulses through single bath technique (SBT). CMMA coatings were developed under different conditions of cyclic cathode current densities (CCCDs) and number of layers, and their corrosion resistances were evaluated by potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) method. Optimal configuration, represented as (Zn-Co)<inf>2 0/4.0/300</inf> was found to exhibit ? 89 times better corrosion resistance compared to monolithic (Zn- Co)<inf>3 0</inf> alloy deposited for same time, from same bath. The better corrosion resistance of CMMA coatings was attributed to changed interfacial dielectric properties, evidenced by dielectric spectroscopy. Improved corrosion resistance was attributed to formation of n-type semiconductor film at the interface, supported by the Mott-Schottky plot. Further, the formation of multilayer and corrosion mechanism was analysed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). © Indian Academy of Sciences.