Characteristics of acetate based zinc bath and deposits

Zinc electrodeposits offer protection to steel against atmospheric corrosion both by galvanic and shielding effects. The cyanide process for zinc electrodeposition is increasingly being replaced by chloride and many other non-cyanide formulations. The search for a better zinc plating electrolyte is therefore a continuing process. In this paper the authors present details of zinc plating from an acetate electrolyte together with the deposit properties. The addition of thiaminehydrochloride to the plating bath improves the surface morphology of zinc electrodeposits. The X-ray diffraction data obtained for electrodeposited zinc showed it to be polycrystalline in nature with an hexagonal structure. Analysis by scanning electron microscopy demonstrated a uniform and pinhole-free surface