About zinc plating and environmental protection

as a protective coating, zinc coating has a large production, accounting for about 5% of the total electroplating output. Electroplating is the most common application to obtain zinc coating. Zinc electroplating solution can be divided into cyanide zinc plating and cyanide-free zinc plating according to the types of electrolyte. Environmental protection zinc plating generally requires cyanide-free and hexavalent chromium is not used in post-treatment.

cyanide zinc plating uses sodium cyanide as complexing agent, which has good dispersion ability and deep plating ability, mature process, easy control and simple operation and maintenance. Therefore, the process has been used for a hundred years and is still in use today, although the cyanide content in the plating solution is getting less and less. But as we all know, cyanide is a serious drug, and safety and wastewater treatment are very troublesome.

At present, cyanide-free zinc plating mainly includes alkaline zincate zinc plating, acidic ammonium salt and sulfate zinc plating, and slightly acidic potassium chloride zinc plating, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages.

after zinc plating, in order to improve the corrosion resistance of zinc coating, post-treatment must be carried out, including hydrogen removal, light emission and passivation. Chromic acid is generally used for passivation, but hexavalent chromium does not meet the requirements of environmental protection, so many electroplating solution suppliers have developed trivalent passivation process.