Abstract
Ordinary steels have poor corrosion resistance in chloride medium leading to a deterioration of their longevity. The present research work focuses on the deposition and characterization of a zinc layer by dip galvanizing onto low carbon steel ASTM A283M-98 in sheet form using different characterization techniques such as optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled to energy dispersion spectrometer (EDS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction analyses of the steel reveal a ferritic microstructure with the presence of a small amount of pearlite. The deposited layer is composed of four Fe-Zn intermetallic phases, namely eta (eta), zeta (zeta), delta (delta), and gamma (Gamma). The electrochemical study in 0.5M NaCl medium indicate an enhancement of the corrosion resistance of ASTM A283M-98 steel coated with Fe-Zn multi-phased layer, characterized by a decrease in corrosion current (I-corr = 3.36 mu A/cm(2)) and corrosion rate (Cr = 0.29mm/year) compared to the bare steel (I-corr = 12.29 mu A/cm(2) and Cr= 0.72mm/year).