Effect of Average Electric Current Density on Deposition Rate and Appearance and Structure of Pulse Electrodeposited Fe Coating

Iron coatings were prepared on steel and copper substrates using pulse electrodeposition technique. The influence of the average current density on the deposition rate and appearance, microhardness, and microstructure of the as-deposited Fe coating was investigated. As the results, the Fe coating had satisfactory appearance in the early stage of increasing of the average current density, but the appearance became poor with extended increasing of the current density. At the same time, the deposition rate of the iron coating increased with increasing current density and the best deposition efficiency was reached at a current density of 16 A/ dm 2. Moreover, the microhardness of the Fe coatings prepared at different deposition conditions was roughly characterized by Gaussian distribution, while the cubic crystal of the Fe coating had obvious preferred orientation.