Morphology and chemical composition of Zn-Co alloy electrodeposits from alkaline solutions

Zn-Co alloy electrodeposits were obtained from weakly alkaline glycine solutions by using direct current. The influence of current density, electrolyte temperature, electrolyte's Co$^{2+}$ concentration on the surface morphology and chemical composition were investigated by using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX), respectively. The results showed that increasing temperature, electrolyte's Co$^{2+}$ concentration and current density, increases cobalt content of the coatings. It was also shown that increasing current density, up to 15 mA cm$^{-2}$, decreases the grain size and further increase in current density increases the grain size of the deposit.