Study on the Corrosion Mechanism of Zn-5Al-0.5Mg-0.08Si Coating

A new type of hot-dip Zn-5Al-0.5Mg-0.08Si and Zn-5Al alloy coatings was performed on the cold rolled common steel. The hot-dip process was executed by self-made hot-dip galvanising simulator. SEM and EDS test results demonstrated that Mg was mainly distributed in crystal boundaries. XRD test results showed that the corrosion product of Zn-5Al-0.5Mg-0.08Si alloy coating was almost Zn5(OH)8C12⋅H2O. The features of Zn5(OH)8C12⋅H2O are low electric conductivity, insolubility and good adhesion.The corrosion resistance of alloy-coated steels was detected by neutral salt spray test. The microstructural characterization of the coating surface after neutral salt spray test and removing the corrosion products revealed that the corrosion process of Zn-5Al-0.5Mg-0.08Si coating was uniform and the coating surface was almost flat. As a result, the corrosion resistance of Zn-5Al-0.5Mg-0.08Si coating has a remarkable improvement with a factor of 9.2 compared with that of Zn-5Al coating.