Surface treatment and especially metal plating is a key process in the mechanical industry. It allows to protect structural and mechanical parts from degradation and prolongs their service life. To protect steel against corrosion, sacrificial coatings are widely used, and zinc coatings are often applied in this scope. However, the kinetic of zinc galvanic corrosion is very important. To overcome this problem, more noble elements are codeposited, involving the use of harmful metal salts, for instance nickel (II) salts. The industrial use of these salts is more and more restricted and regulated all over the world. Many alternatives are proposed, the more promising consisting in zinc-iron alloy electrodeposition with high iron content. The Atlas project (Alternative TechnoLogies for improved Anticorrosion Solutions), which is a large industrial consortium, is born in order to develop the ZnFe coatings properties and the knowledge of its corrosion mechanism.

The corrosion behaviors of commercial ZnFe electrodeposited coatings were investigated in 3.5 % NaCl solution. Corrosion potential is shifted towards more positive values, limiting the risk of galvanic corrosion with the substrate compared with pure zinc coatings. Sacrificial protection is evaluated with potentiodynamic tests, and longtime open circuit potential immersion is performed in order to analyze corrosion products. Other industrial sacrificial coatings performances are evaluated as a reference for those new ZnFe sacrificial coatings.