Study on the growth and corrosion resistance of manganese phosphate coatings on 30CrMnMoTi alloy steel

Abstract

Due to containing some alloy elements such as chromium, 30CrMnMoTi steel is usually difficult to be phosphated. In present paper, the growth process of the phosphate coating on 30CrMnMoTi alloy steel fabricated by a high temperature manganese phosphating was investigated. The microstructure, surface morphology, composition and corrosion resistance of the phosphate coatings were analyzed by XRD, SEM, EDS and electrochemical polarization method, respectively. The time dependence of open circuit potential (OCP) and the weight of the coating were also measured. It is found that the phosphate coating is mainly composed of (Mn,Fe)5H2(PO4)4·4H2O and consists of a lot of close packed lump crystallites. Based on the time dependence of morphology and the weight of phosphate films, it shows that the phosphating process mainly includes three stages: corrosion of the substrate, creation and growth of phosphate crystal nucleus and thickening of phosphate coating. For 30CrMnMoTi steel, it takes at least 30seconds and 3minutes for the first and second step, respectively: at the beginning stage of phospahting process, a lot of bubbles emit, then a complete film will form at the end of bubbling, and the nucleation of phosphate film is inhomogeneous, phosphate crystal nucleus usually forms preferentially at grain boundary. The coating weight-time curve is similar to that of the parabolic growth. The electrochemical polarization measurement shows that the corrosion potentials of the phosphated steel shifted positively about 480mV than the bare steel and the results of neutral salt spray test (NSS) could reach 24h, indicating the phosphating improved the corrosion resistance of the 30CrMnMoTi alloy steel.