Effect of Cerium on Structure of Electroless Co-Fe-B Alloy Coating

By means of plasma transmitting spectrograph, electron energy spectrometer, X-ray diffractometer and transmission electron microscopy, the chemical composition and crystal structure of electroless Co-Fe-B alloy coating with addition of rare earth metal, cerium, are investigated. The results show that the cerium content in the Co-Fe-B-Ce alloy coating is increased firstly and then decreased afterwards with the increase of additive quantity of cerium in plating baths, the peak value is at [Ce]=1.0g/L in the plating bath. The boron content is decreased, but cobalt and iron contents are increased in the alloy coating by introduction of the rare metal cerium, and the structure of the alloy coatings is transformed to microcrystalline structure from amorphous structure.