Electrodeposition and characterization of Fe-Cr-P amorphous alloys from trivalent chromium sulfate electrolyte

Fe-Cr-P amorphous alloys were electrodeposited in a trivalent chromium sulfate electrolyte containing glycine as complexing agent. The effects of bath composition and electrodeposition parameters such as current density, bath pH and plating time on the structure, morphology and composition of the amorphous Fe-Cr-P deposits were investigated. The optimum bath composition and electrodeposition parameters were obtained using glycine as complexing agents. It showed that glycine is a suitable complexing agent to get good quality of Fe-Cr-P amorphous alloys by trivalent chromium electrodeposition. The obtained Fe-Cr-P deposits were characterized by means of SEM, EDS, XRD as well as XPS techniques. It was observed that the chromium content in the deposits increased with increasing the cathodic current density. When current density exceeds specific value, the chromium content in the deposit would decrease. SEM results show that fine-grain, smooth and compact Fe-Cr-P alloy deposits were obtained. Results of EDS and XPS indicate that the deposited alloys contain chromium, iron, phosphorus, nitrogen, oxygen and carbon. The XRD pattern reveals that the Fe-Cr-P alloy deposit has amorphous structure. These results may be of some practical and theoretical significance for further improving chromium alloy electrodeposition process. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.