Properties Analysis of Environment Friendly Electrodeposit Films Formed at Various Current Density Conditions in Natural Seawater

Calcareous deposits are the consequence of pH increase of the electrolyte adjacent to metal surface affected by cathodic current in seawater. It obviously has several advantages over conventional coatings, since the calcareous deposit coating is formed from coating (Mg$^{2+}$, $Ca^{2+}$) naturally existing in seawater. In consideration of this respect, environment friendly calcareous deposit films were formed by an electro deposition technique on steel substrates submerged in 48$^{\circ}C$ natural seawater. And the influence of current density, coating time and attachment of steel mesh on composition ratio, structure and morphology of the electrodeposited films were investigated by Scanning Electron Microscopy(SEM), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy(EDS) and X-Ray Diffractor(XRD), respectively. Accordingly, this study provides a better understanding of the composition between the growth of $Mg(OH)_2$ and $CaCO_3$ during the formation of electro deposit films on steel substrate under cathodically electrodeposition in $48^{\circ}C$ natural seawater. The Mg compositions, in general, are getting decreased regardless of current density but Ca compositions are getting increased as electrodeposition time runs. That is, $Mg(OH)_2$ compounds of brucite structure shaped as flat type is formed at the initial stage of electrodeposition, but CaCO$_3$ compounds of aragonite structure shaped as flower type is formed in large scale. Besides, $Mg(OH)_2$ compounds were much formed at 5 A/$\m^2$ environment condition compared to the 3 A/$\m^2$ and 4 A/$\m^2$ environment conditions. This is because that OH- which was comparatively largely generated at the metal surface is preferably combined with $Mg^{2+}$TEX>.

천연해수 중 전류밀도 변화에 따라 형성된 환경친화적인 전착 코팅막의 특성 분석