Dissolution kinetics of iron in liquid zinc

In hot dip galvanizing, steel strip is coated by immersion in a bath of molten zinc. The principal reactions that occur at the steel/liquid zinc interface are (1) dissolution of iron and (2) nucleation and growth of intermetallic compounds. In order to improve the management of industrial galvanizing baths, it is essential to evaluate the flux of dissolved iron that diffuses into the bath from the sheet. For this purpose, a rotating disk device has been developed to study the dissolution and diffusion of iron in pure liquid zinc at the temperature usually employed in galvanizing baths (465degreesC). Since the dissolution reaction is controlled by diffusion under these conditions, the diffusion coefficient of iron in liquid zinc has been measured and found to be: D-Fe(Zn(L))=(9.8+/-0.1)x10(-10) m(2).s(-1) (C) 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers.