Study of the electrochemical behaviour of nanocrystalline zinc by statistical methods

Pulse electrodeposition was used to synthesize nanocrystalline (NC) zinc coatings from citric acid bath. The electrochemical behaviour of the NC zinc coatings was investigated by using potentiostatic and potentiodynamic polarization methods in 0.5 mol/L NaCl (pH = 12) solution and compared with that of cast zinc. Pitting corrosion behaviour was characterized by pitting potential, induction time and stable pit growth rate which were analyzed according to statistical method. The results showed that nanocrystallization increased the sensitivity of E(pit) refer to potential sweep velocity, changed the type of the pit generation from B1 (parallel) to B2 (series), accelerated the pitting initiation process and inhibited the stable pit growth process of NC zinc. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.