Hongxuan Xinga,
Jidong Li*a,
Xianwei Hub,
Yaowu Wangb,
Yiyong Wanga and
Zhipeng Lianga
aSchool of Materials and Metallurgy, University of Science and Technology Liaoning, Anshan 114051, China. E-mail: xhx17070958303@163.com; lijidong1014@163.com
bNortheastern University, School of Metallurgy, Shenyang 110000, China
First published on 15th November 2023
In order to repair the soft magnetic properties of wasted silicon steel, a theoretical process of co-depositing Co–Fe soft magnetic alloy on the surface of wasted silicon steel is proposed. The results show that the co-deposited Co–Fe alloy coatings can serve to repair the soft magnetic properties of wasted silicon as detected by the vibrating sample magnetometer, and the alloy coatings with Co7Fe3 as the main phase structure can provide surface protection for silicon steel. Subsequently, the mechanism of co-deposited Co–Fe alloys was investigated, and it was concluded that Co2+ and Fe2+ undergo a one-step two-electron co-deposition reaction, as studied using cyclic voltammetry. The chronoamperometric analysis and its fitting results indicated that the deposition of Co2+ and Fe2+ was a diffusion-controlled transient nucleation process, and the AC impedance indicated that higher voltages were favorable for the deposition of Co–Fe alloys but were accompanied by hydrogen precipitation reactions.
In previous studies, researchers treated wasted silicon steel by recycling and remelting it, resulting in a huge waste of human and ore resources.4 Some wasted silicon steel is simply painted and reused, which brings serious safety hazards to transformers, mainly in the form of increased hysteresis loss, increased temperature rise, and easy breakdown of the core.5 In addition, most of the researchers are focusing on the study of silicon steel coated with insulating paint and the study of magnesium silicate base layer covered on the surface of the silicon steel.6,7 Before the silicon steel is coated with insulating paint, it will be exposed to an uncontrollable environment, which greatly increases the risk of being corroded. It is therefore crucial to propose a process that can both repair the soft magnetic properties of the wasted silicon steel and enhance the corrosion resistance of the original silicon steel.
Pornthep Chivavibul et al.8 proposed to electrodeposit Ni–Co–P coating on the surface of silicon steel and studied the effect of different thicknesses of the coating on the hysteresis loss of silicon steel, and it was found that Ni–Co–P coating reduced the hysteresis loss by 4%; however, the effect of the alloy on other soft magnetic properties and corrosion resistance was not reported. Vishu Goel et al.9 coated Co–Ni–P on the surface of the oriented silicon steel and reduced the hysteresis loss by approximately 9% and noted that depositing cobalt-based alloys on the surface of silicon steel helps enhance the soft magnetic properties and reduce the hysteresis loss. Ferromagnetic transition metals, such as Fe, Co, and Ni show the saturation magnetization of 251, 177, and 54.39 emu g−1,6 respectively, thus Co–Fe alloys can form coatings with the highest saturation magnetization strength. Chansena10 obtained Co–Fe alloy by electrodeposition on the surface of the copper substrate and investigated the effect of iron content on corrosion resistance, showing that the alloy has the best performance when the iron content is 37% and the cobalt content is 63%. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a process of electrodeposition of Co–Fe alloy on the surface of wasted silicon steel to repair the soft magnetic properties and improve the corrosion resistance of the wasted silicon steel, which provides a new idea for the comprehensive utilization of silicon steel resources in the future. In addition, we studied the electrochemical deposition behavior of the Co–Fe alloy, which is an important component of the magnetic head in disks, and revealed the deposition mechanism of the Co–Fe alloy to provide theoretical guidance for the electrochemical synthesis of other alloys.
Categories | Co–Fe | Prerequisite |
---|---|---|
Composition of the plating solution | CoSO4·7H2O | 20 g L−1 |
FeSO4·7H2O | 10 g L−1 | |
NaB4O7·10H2O | 20 g L−1 | |
C4H4Na2O6 | 45 g L−1 | |
MgSO4 | 0.4 g L−1 | |
C12H25SO3Na | 0.05 g L−1 | |
Process parameters | Current density | 300 mA cm−2 |
pH | 7 | |
Temperature | 40 °C | |
Times | 60 min |
For the corrosion tests, the corrosion solution used in previous studies was the NaCl solution with a mass fraction of 3.5%, but the working environment of the silicon steel of the transformer core was air or a harsh acidic environment.10 The corrosion solution we selected was a vented acidic solution (HCl) with pH values of 3, 4, and 5, and vented deionized water, in order to simulate the actual production and storage environment and to ensure that the saturation of oxygen The reference electrode was an Ag/AgCl electrode, the auxiliary electrode was a platinum sheet with stable performance, and the working electrode was coated with Co–Fe alloy.
Fig. 2 Surface charaterization: (a) the XRD and SEM cross-section of alloy coatings; (b) the EDS of alloy coatings. |
The resulting micro-morphology of the plated layer and the distribution of Co and Fe in the plated layer are shown in Fig. 2(b). The surface of the coating was extremely dense, and the two elements of Co and Fe were uniformly distributed on the surface of the coating. There were no cracks on the surface of the plated layer, and the plated layer was not peeled off or damaged after repeated adhesion of the high-adhesive PET tape, and the bonding force was good. In addition, Co and Fe contents were 64.43% and 35.57%, respectively, reaching the optimum soft magnetic elements content described in the literature.7
The soft magnetic properties of the different samples are shown in Fig. 6. It can be seen that compared to the original silicon steel, the coercivity (Hc) of the wasted silicon steel has a significant elevation, and its magnetization speed also decreases significantly, and the saturation magnetization decreases. After plating repairs, the coercivity (Hc) of the silicon steel was significantly reduced, the magnetization speed was significantly increased, and the saturation magnetization (Ms) was also enhanced to some extent. The specific performance enhancement is shown in Table 2, after adding the Co–Fe coating, the saturation magnetization (Ms) increased by 6.25%, the coercivity (Hc) decreased by 43.5%, and the soft magnetic performance was significantly improved, indicating that the Co–Fe alloy coating played a regenerative role in repairing the waste silicon steel.
Title | Ms (emu g−1) | Hc (Oe) | Ms (aise) (%) | Hc (recovery) (%) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Wasted silicon steel | 202.761 | 6.2 | — | — |
Raw silicon steel | 196.769 | 2.5 | — | — |
Repair of the silicon steel | 209.071 | 3.5 | 6.25% | 43.5% |
Corrosion solution | Jcorr (A cm−2) | Ecorr (V) | Corrosion rate (mm per year) |
---|---|---|---|
Deionizes water | 1.92 × 10−7 | −0.424 | 2.23 × 10−3 |
pH 3 | 4.81 × 10−5 | −0.557 | 5.59 × 10−1 |
pH 4 | 1.83 × 10−5 | −0.557 | 2.13 × 10−1 |
pH 5 | 2.86 × 10−6 | −0.549 | 3.32 × 10−2 |
Silicon steel (pH 5) | 6.99 × 10−6 | −0.561 | 8.14 × 10−2 |
Based on the corrosion rate values obtained from Fig. 4 and Table 3, the corrosion rates were analyzed based on previous literature.14 In general, metallic materials with corrosion rates below 0.1 mm per year are considered corrosion resistant, while corrosion rates above 0.1 mm per year are classified as non-corrosion resistant.15 According to these criteria, the Co7Fe3 alloy can be considered corrosion resistant in aerated pH 5 solution and in aerated deionized water. In addition to this, it can be seen from the graph shows that the dynamic potential polarization curve of the Co7Fe3 alloy coating does not show a passivation zone that inhibits the occurrence of corrosion.
Take the example of a sweep rate of 50 mV s−1 in CV for the relevant calculations. In the CV curves of the mixed FeSO4–CoSO4 solution, a rapid change in current again at −0.760 V, but after −0.760 V without the presence of a reduction peak or a rapidly changing position of the current. Since the deposition potential of Co2+ is lower than that of Fe2+, it can be considered that the induced co-deposition occurred at −0.760 V.1 In order to further verify the number of electrons transferred during the reduction of Co2+, and Fe2+ on the silicon steel electrode, any four points on the left side of −0.760 V were taken, and the relevant data were calculated and tabulated, as shown in Table 4 and Fig. 6.
Ip/mA | I/mA | E/V | lg[(I − Ip)/I] |
---|---|---|---|
−6.528 | −6.747 | −0.765 | −1.488 |
−6.528 | −6.860 | −0.768 | −1.315 |
−6.528 | −6.973 | −0.771 | −1.195 |
−6.528 | −7.086 | −0.773 | −1.104 |
As can be seen in Fig. 6, the E–lg[(Ip − I)/I] curve is linear with the slope of the fitted straight line K = 0.0205. According to the Nernst eqn (1) for the number of transferred electrons:16
(1) |
The slope K = 1.857RT/nF = 0.0205, from which the CV curve at −0.760 V for 50 mV s−1 corresponds to the number of electrons transferred:
It is proven that the electron transfer number at −0.760 V is 2. The principle is as follows: Fe2+ + 2e−→Fe. In addition, according to the deposition potential of Co2+, the following reaction also takes place: Co2+ + 2e− → Co. It can be seen that the induced co-deposition of Co and Fe occurs at −0.670 V.
Fig. 7 Chronoamperometric analysis: (a) chronoamperometry under different potentials; (b) fitted line about −I–τ−1/2. |
When different step potentials are applied, the current increases to an enormous maximum due to the bilayer charging effect. After that, the current decreases with time from the moment of energization due to the migration effect of ions to the cathode and finally slows down to reach the steady state current value, which indicates that the crystal growth and nucleation process occurs at this stage.17 In an aqueous solution, the ion concentration is much larger than the cathode surface, at this time the electrode surface concentration polarization dominates. Due to the difference in ion concentration, eventually, the two regions reach an ideal equilibrium and the current no longer changes.
The diffusion coefficient of Co2+ and Fe2+ was calculated according to Cotrell's equation.17
(2) |
From Fig. 7(b), it is known that the transition time τ−1/2 in the timing current shows a good linear relationship with the current intensity, which proves that the electrochemical reduction process of Co2+ and Fe2+ on the cathode surface is controlled by the diffusion step. According to eqn (2), the diffusion coefficients of Co2+ and Fe2+ can be calculated. Combining the known data, including the working electrode surface area, S = 4 cm2, Iτ1/2 = 4.706 mA s1/2, F = 96485C mol−1, C0–Co2+ = 0.071 mol L−1 and C0–Fe2+ = 0.036 mol L−1, n = 2, π = 3.14, DCo2+ = 0.939 × 10−8 cm2 s−1 and DFe2+ = 3.651 × 10−8 cm2 s−1 were obtained.
The nucleation mode of Co2+ and Fe2+ at the deposition potential can be obtained by selecting different points from the stages of chronoamperometric curves and fitting them according to eqn (4) and (6).18
Instantaneous nucleation:
(3) |
(4) |
Continuous nucleation:
(5) |
(6) |
Instantaneous nucleation and continuous nucleation equations can be fitted from four different points arbitrarily taken from the rising portion of the different timing current curves in Fig. 8. The degree of fit between I(t) − t1/2 and I(t) − t2/3 is listed in Table 5.
E/V | I(t) − t1/2 degree of fitting | I(t) − t3/2 degree of fitting |
---|---|---|
−0.77 | 0.990 | 0.988 |
−0.78 | 0.988 | 0.985 |
−0.79 | 0.984 | 0.981 |
−0.80 | 0.987 | 0.982 |
Table 5 shows that the fitting degree of I(t) − t1/2 is better than the fitting degree of I(t) − t3/2 at any potential, which indicates that the nucleation mechanism of Co2+ and Fe2+ on the silicon steel plate is instantaneous nucleation.18
E/V | Rs/Ω | Rct/Ω |
---|---|---|
−0.77 | 6.27 | 70.2 |
−0.78 | 6.24 | 63.6 |
−0.79 | 6.23 | 57.1 |
−0.80 | 6.21 | 48.7 |
As can be seen from Fig. 8, when the applied potential is −0.77–−0.80 V, the Nyquist pattern of the Co–Fe system basically exhibits a complete capacitive arc semicircle. With the increase of the applied voltage, the arc radius gradually decreases, indicating that the increase of the voltage can rapidly reach the activation energy required for the reaction, reduce the charge transfer resistance, and accelerate the process of the electrochemical reaction.19,20 In addition, we also found some scattering points at the end of the arc, which are related to the hydrogen precipitation reaction.
(1) By co-depositing the Co7Fe3 alloy coating on the surface of the wasted silicon steel, the coercivity of the waste silicon steel was reduced by 43.5% and its saturation magnetization strength was increased by 6.25%, which realized the repair of the soft magnetic properties as well as the high-value recycling of the wasted silicon steel. In addition, the corrosion current density of the Co7Fe3 alloy coating was 1.92 × 10−7 A cm−2, which enhanced the protection of the substrate and avoided the secondary damage to the repaired silicon steel.
(2) The electrodeposition mechanism of the Co–Fe alloys revealed that Co2+ and Fe2+ in the sodium tartrate system is a diffusion-controlled transient nucleation process, with diffusion coefficients of 0.939 × 10−8 cm2 s−1 and 3.651 × 10−8 cm2 s−1, respectively. The AC impedance revealed that applying a higher voltage is favorable to the metal nucleation but causes the current efficiency to become low. The study of the electrochemical behavior of Co–Fe alloys provides theoretical guidance for the electrochemical synthesis of other alloys.
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