Corrosion of zinc–magnesium coatings: Mechanism of paint delamination

Due to their promising corrosion properties, metallic coatings containing magnesium are currently widely investigated for use as protective coatings for steel sheet. Particularly, alloying zinc coatings with magnesium results in a remarkable improvement of the corrosion resistance of the painted system. While some aspects of this improvement have been understood, the progress of the corrosive degradation of the alloy coating/paint interface has not been reported in detail. In this paper, the delamination of a model polymer from the intermetallic MgZn2 is described and a degradation mechanism proposed. Aspects for the design of stable interfaces are discussed.