Impact of Cerium on Corrosion Behavior of Zinc Coating in Cl- Environment

Abstract

This paper aims to study the impact of cerium on the corrosion resistance of zinc coating in 5% NaCl solution. Based on the immersing experiment, electrochemistry was used to measure the electrochemical parameters when comparing the zinc coating’s corrosion resistance with that of zinc coating with an additional cerium conversion coating. SEM and XRD were adopted to analyze the appearance and phases of corrosion products of this cerium conversion coating, and to probe the impact of cerium on the corrosion behavior of zinc coating in Cl- environment. The results showed that cerium conversion coating formed on the zinc coating effectively increased the zinc’s corrosion resistance. By contrast, models of conversion coating with lower cerium content poorly protected the substrate, resulting in easy erosion of the zinc coating in Cl- environment.