characterization of Zn-Mg-Al based coating

Abstract

This paper aims to characterize Zn-Mg-Al based coating by profile analysis and determine its thickness as a basic property of the coatings. The most frequently used method for its determination is optical microscopy, but it is time-consuming and destructive. Glow Discharge Optical Emission Spectrometry (GDOES) was chosen as the second method for determining both the thickness and the chemical composition of the coating. The results show that both methods give statistically identical results. The suitability of using GDOES for Zn-layer analysis has already been demonstrated in the literature, and this work confirms these conclusions. Its use for the analysis of alloy layers has been verified by this work.