Effect of surface textures of iron substrate on the crystal orientation relationship between electrodeposited zinc and iron

To investigate the effect of iron texture on the crystal orientation relationship between iron and zinc, Zn deposition was performed galvanostatically at 1 500 A/m ² at a charge density of 1.48 × 10 ⁴ C/m ² onto high-purity electrolytic iron and cold rolled steel sheets in an agitated sulfate solution at 40°C. Fe with a large grain size showed an orientation relationship of {110}Fe//{0001}Zn. However, when the angle of inclination between the {110}Fe plane and the surface of electrolytic Fe was increased, the deviation in the orientation relationship {110}Fe//{0001}Zn increased. This result suggests that the orientation relationship of {110}Fe//{0001}Zn is difficult to maintain during the deposition when the inclination angle of the {110}Fe plane from the surface of electrolytic Fe increases. As a result, the epitaxial growth of Zn changes to random growth. Zn deposited on cold rolled steel sheets with a small grain size showed an orientation of {0001}, regardless of the orientation of Fe. This indicates that the orientation of the deposited Zn is more affected by the overpotential for deposition than by the orientation of steel sheets at the initial stage of deposition. Although strain was introduced into the high-purity electrolytic Fe with sandblasting, the orientation relationship of {110}Fe//{0001}Zn did not change remarkably, showing that the strain of Fe substrate has little effect on the orientation relationship between Fe and deposited Zn.