Effect of particle conductivity on Fe-Si composite electrodeposition

Coatings containing Fe-Si or Si particles were electrodeposited on 3.0%(mass fraction) Si steel sheets. The surface morphology, the cross-section and the silicon content of coating have been investigated, respectively. It was found that the number of particles on the coating surface and cross-section significantly decreased with increasing silicon content in the applied particles, leading to a decrease of the silicon content of coatings. About 10.2% silicon content of coatings deposited with Fe-30%Si particles can be obtained, whereas that for Si particles was only 2.9% at a particle concentration of 100 g/L and current density of 2 A/dm2. This is mainly attributed to the conductivity of applied particles. High conductivity can promote the co-deposition of the particles. With increasing silicon content in the particles, their conductivity decreased sharply, resulting in the decrease of silicon content of coatings. Present work may initiate a new method to modify the particle content of the composite coatings via changing the conductivity of the particles during the composite electrodeposition. In this paper, a possible mechanism was proposed to explain the phenomena.