Study on Microstructure and Properties of Mechanically Deposited Zn-Sn Coating

A Zn-Sn coating of ~30 µm thickness was prepared on an iron substrate by mechanical deposition using zinc and tin powders as raw materials. The Zn-Sn coating consists of zinc powder particles physically stacked with tin powder particles and filled with reduced tin, and the tin content in the coating is 20%–30%. The resulting Zn-Sn coating was characterized and analyzed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), polarization curves (Tafel), electrochemical impedance (EIS), and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS). The results showed that the Zn powder was co-deposited with the Sn powder in a portable manner and the Sn powder was deflected and deformed to a great extent. The spot-flocculated reduced Sn also covered the surface of the Zn powder to fill the interstices of the coating to make the coating more compact. Compared with the pure Zn coating, the Zn-Sn coating has a positive shift of 68 mV in the self-corrosion potential in the polarization test, and the corrosion current was only 20% of that of the pure Zn coating. The reduced Sn had a shielding effect on the Zn powder and at the same time, in combination with inert tin powder, the polarization resistance of the plated layer increased to 1118 Ω/cm2. Furthermore, compared to the pure zinc layer, the time of white rust and red rust increased by 24 and 240 h, respectively. In addition, the XPS results showed that the Zn-Sn plating layer was clearly passivated, which was mainly due to the formation of Zn(OH)2 and Sn(OH)2. The results also emphasized that the tin element in the Zn-Sn plated layer can maintain the morphology of zinc powder, compact the plating layer, and prevent the release of corrosion products, thus improving the corrosion resistance of the Zn-Sn coating.