Enhancement of Mechanical Properties of Zn-Cu-Fe Alloy Coating on mild Steel Substrate at Different Fe Contents

Zn-Cu-Fe alloys can be used for coating on mild steel substrate for the enhancement of mechanical properties of the substrate. So, it will be interesting to study what sort of effect of Fe content if the coating of an alloy Zn-Cu-Fe is deposited on mild steel. For this purpose, four samples of Zn-Cu-Fe alloy on mild steel substrate are prepared by electrodeposition. This technique is favorable because of its low cost and easy approach. The electrolytic bath contained the 0.15M ZnSO 4 , 0.15M CuSO4, (0.00M, 0.03M, 0.06M, 0.09M) FeSO 4 .7H 2 O and 0.25M H 3 BO 3 as buffer during the deposition process. The value of an operating parameter such as deposition time, temperature, current density, and pH are kept at 15–20 mints, 298K, 0.02 Acm − , 2 and 3 respectively. The analysis is done by studying crystallographic parameters of the ternary Zn-Cu-Fe alloy coating, surface morphology and mechanical properties are studied. Results obtained by electrodeposition with various concentrations of Fe showed that the surface become more smooth, average grain size decreased, lattice parameters and crystal size showed overall decreasing trends and the mechanical properties are enhanced. Due to these improved properties of coating substrate becomes more useful for construction, automobile fencing applications.