Electrochemical and mechanical study of co-deposited Zn–ZnO-snail shell particles composites coating on mild steel

Zinc coating on plain carbon steel has been an age long practice in fields of engineering owing to its corrosion resistance ability and added strength. However, adding only zinc and zinc alloy may not guarantee the needed stability of the coated surface. In this work, co-deposition of Zn–ZnO-snail shell particles composite coating on mild steel was reported with the view to combat this problem. The snail shell particles (SSp) varies from 0 to 25 g. The coating thickness, microstructure, hardness values, wear rate, and potentiodynamic polarization in simulated sea water were determined. Higher coating thickness of 188 μm and weight gain of 0.75 g was obtained at Zn–ZnO-15gSSp. The hardness values of the mild steel increases by 60% there was while the wear rate decreased by 94.4% at 15%SSp addition. The corrosion rate of the mild steel decreased after coating with SSp. It was established that waste snail shell coating on mild steel can be used for anti-wear and corrosion applications.