Electrodeposition of Zn–Co Coating and its Electrochemical Performance

We report the acid chloride bath based electroplating of Zn–Co alloy on low carbon steel (LCS). As additives, the sulphanilic acid (SA) and gelatin were used for electroplating. The bath exhibited an anomalous co-deposition with a higher deposition of Zn over nobler Co. The role of bath composition, current density, partial current density, pH, and temperature on thickness, hardness, and corrosion resistance of deposit was studied. The corrosion behavior in 3.5 wt % sodium chloride solution and electrochemical behavior in acid chloride solutions of Zn–Co alloy coatings were studied using the potentiodynamic polarization method and cyclic voltammetry technique respectively. Mott–Schottky plot with positive slope confirms the development of n-type semiconductor layer at the interface of substrate and coating, which results in superior corrosion resistance of coatings. The colorimetric method has been used to estimate the composition of the deposit and further verified by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) technique. The surface features and the topographical structure of the alloy film were obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques. The results indicate that the Zn–Co alloy films exhibited superior corrosion resistance with the lowest corrosion rate (138 µm y–1). Hence this alloy coating will find suitable applications in automobile and aerospace industries.