Investigation of Hybrid Zr-Aminosilane Treatment Formation on Zinc Substrate and Comparison to Advanced High Strength Stainless Steel

This research aims to investigate the formation mechanism of a hybrid Zr-aminosilane conversion coating as a replacement for the conventional pretreatment systems on a zinc substrate that simulates galvanization layers. This hybrid pretreatment contains both Cu and aminosilane as inorganic and organic additives. This coating has been analyzed using advanced surface analytical techniques such as XPS, EDX, FEG-AES, GDOES, and ToF-SIMS. The results showed that N is incorporated into the deposited Zr layer throughout the depth while a thin layer of aminosilane is present on the top surface. Additionally, the results obtained in this study are compared to a previous study about the same conversion system on Advanced high Strength Stainless Steel (AHSSS). This was done in order to compare the behavior of active and passive substrates in the same conversion treatment.