A study on electrodeposited Zn1–xFex alloys

Zn1–xFex alloys were electrochemically deposited on AISI 4140 steel substrates from sulfate bath. The bath was consisted of 40 g dm–3 ZnSO4 7H2O, 20–40 g dm–3 FeSO4 7H2O, 25 g dm–3 Na3C6H5O7, and 16 g dm–3 H3BO3. The effect of bath composition on the electrical resistivity, the phase structure, and the corrosion behavior were investigated by the current–voltage measurements versus temperature, the X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, the atomic absorption spectrometry analysis, and the polarization measurements, respectively. Iron content was shown to strongly affect the structure, the electrical resistivity and the corrosion stability of Zn–Fe alloys