Study of superhydrophobicity and corrosion resistance of electrodeposited Zn-Ni-HDTMS coating

Zinc-nickel (ZN) coatings were deposited on N80 steel substrates using pulsed electrodeposition. The current density of the two-step electrodeposition process was adjusted to promote the formation of micro/nanostructures on the coating surface. Superhydrophobic coatings were obtained by using appropriate current parameters and subsequent modification of the coatings with hexadecyltrimethoxysilane. The results showed that the coating achieved a water contact angle of 157 ± 1° and a sliding angle of 6 ± 1°, indicating that the superhydrophobicity was successfully constructed. In addition, electrochemical tests confirmed the coating’s excellent corrosion resistance. Compared with other samples, the corrosion current density of the coating in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution was significantly reduced, the corrosion inhibition rate reached 94.41%, and the impedance modulus in the low-frequency region of the Bode plot was improved by one order of magnitude compared with that of the blank sample. In conclusion, the prepared superhydrophobic coating has good hydrophobicity and corrosion resistance and has a broad industrial application prospect.