Electro-deposition of Co–La alloy films in urea melt and their performances

The Co–La alloy film was electro-deposited in urea melt. The co-deposition behavior, the effect of the cathodic current density on the composition and the surface morphology of the coating were examined, respectively. As a result, lanthanum is co-deposited with cobalt to form Co–La alloy under the inducement effect of cobalt. With the increase of the cathodic current density, La content of the deposit rises at first, then decreases, and reaches a maximal value at the current density of 30 mA cm−2. Meanwhile, the size of the coating particles becomes small. The more content of Co in the deposit is, the more the saturation magnetization is. The crystallization behavior of the coating was studied by using the differential scanning calorimetry and the X-ray diffraction. The as-plated deposit consists of main amorphous phase and a little amount of hexagon cobalt phase (P63/mmc). The amorphous phase was converted into Co–La (Fm3m) phase at 438.9 °C, and hexagon cobalt phase was crystallized into cubic cobalt at 687.1 °C. The electro-catalytic activity of the hydrogen evolution for the Co–La alloy was studied by using electrochemical experiments. The results showed that the electro-catalytic activity of the hydrogen evolution of the alloy is better than that of cobalt.