Yogesha, S.Hegde, A.C.2026-02-052010Transactions of the Indian Institute of Metals, 2010, 63, 6, pp. 841-8469722815https://doi.org/10.1007/s12666-010-0128-4https://idr.nitk.ac.in/handle/123456789/27378Optimization of an acid chloride bath for electrodeposition of smooth Zn-Ni alloy on to mild steel was studied using thiamine hydrochloride (THC) as brightener. The influence of deposition current density, temperature, composition, and corrosion properties of Zn-Ni alloy coatings was investigated. The effect of bath composition and operating parameters on deposits characters like composition, micro-hardness, thickness and adhesions were tested. Under no conditions of current density employed in the present study, the anomalous type of co-deposition has changed to normal type. Electrolytically deposited Zn-Ni alloys were characterized by electrochemical AC and DC techniques. The experimental results revealed that coatings having ? 3.16 wt. % Ni at 3.0 A/dm2 was the most corrosion resistant. The better corrosion resistance at optimal current density was attributed to the formation of n-type semiconductor film at the interface using Mott-Schottky (M-S) analysis. The effect of THC on plating process was investigated through cyclic voltammetry techniques. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies of the coatings showed the presence of ?-Phase with composition of Ni<inf>5</inf>Zn<inf>21</inf>, responsible for it extended orrosion resistance. The change in the surface morphology of the coatings, with current density was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). © 2010 Indian Institute of Metals.Corrosion resistanceCyclic voltammetryM-S plotSEMXRDZn-Ni alloy