Preparation of Fe-Cr-P-Co amorphous alloys by electrodeposition

The effects of bath composition and electroplating conditions on structure, morphology, and composition of amorphous Fe-Cr-P-Co deposits on AISI 1020 steel substrate, priorly plated with a thin Cu deposit, were investigated. The increase of charge density activates the inclusion of Cr in the deposit. However, above specific values of the charge density, which depend on the deposition current density, the Cr content in the deposit decreases. This Cr content decreasing is probably due to the significant hydrogen evolution with the increasing of deposition cur-rent and charge density. The effect of charge density on the content of Fe and Co is not clear. However, there is a tendency of increasing of Fe content and decreasing of Co content with the raising of current density. The Co is more easily deposited than the P, and its presence results in a more intense inhibition effect on the Cr deposition than the inhibition effect caused by P presence. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis showed that Co increasing in the Fe-Cr-P-Co alloys analyzed does not promote the susceptibility to microcracks, which led to a good quality deposit. The passive film of the Fe-Cr-P-Co alloy shows a high ability formation and high protective capacity, and the results obtained by current density of corrosion, j(cor), show that the deposit with addition of Co, Fe31Cr11P28Co30, presents a higher corrosion resistance than the deposit with addition of Ni, Fe54Cr21P20Ni5. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.