Comparative study on structure, corrosion and hardness of Zn–Ni alloy deposition on AISI 347 steel aircraft material

► Electrodeposition of Zn–Ni alloy on AISI 347 steel as an aircraft material has been carried out from various baths. ► The effect of pulse duty cycle on thickness, current efficiency and hardness reached maximum values at 40% duty cycle and for 50 Hz frequencies average current density of 4 A dm −2. ► The XRF characterizations of 88:12% Zn–Ni alloy provided excellent corrosion resistance. ► It is found that Zn–Ni alloy on AISI 347 aircraft material has better structure and corrosion resistance by pulse electrodeposits from electrolyte-4. Zn–Ni alloys were electrodeposited on AISI 347 steel aircraft materials from various electrolytes under direct current (DCD) and pulsed electrodepositing (PED) techniques. The effects of pulse duty cycle on thickness, current efficiency and hardness of electrodeposits were studied. Alloy phases of the Zn–Ni were indexed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. Microstructural morphology, topography and elemental compositions were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF). The corrosion resistance properties of electrodeposited Zn–Ni alloy in 3.5% NaCl aqueous solution obtained by DCD and PED were compared using potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) technique. Elemental analysis showed that 88% of Zn and 12% of Ni obtained from electrolyte-4 by PED technique at 40% duty cycle for 50 Hz frequencies having better corrosion resistance than that of deposits obtained from other electrolytes.