TY - JOUR A1 - Pisonero, J. A1 - Fandino, J. A1 - Nordlien, J. H A1 - Richter, Silke A1 - Pfeifer, Jens A1 - Quarles, C. D. A1 - Gonzalez, J. A1 - Jakubowski, Norbert A1 - Bordel, N. T1 - Improving the analytical performance of pulsed-GD-SFMS for multi-elemental depth profile analysis of heat-treated Zn coatings on extruded aluminium N2 - The formation of diffusion layers on Zn layers deposited on Al substrates is mainly used to prevent corrosion effects. Evaluation of the influence exerted by different coating methodologies and heat treatments on the formation of these diffusion layers is of great interest for the aluminium industry. Particularly, multi-elemental in-depth distributions of major, minor and trace elements in Zn-coatings is highly demanded before and after heat treatments. A fast characterization of these materials require a direct solid analytical technique able to provide high sensitivity and high depth resolution. For this purpose, an improved analytical method based on the use of pulsed glow discharge sector field mass spectrometry (pulsed-GD-SFMS) is investigated. Glow discharge operating parameters (e.g. pulse duration, pulse frequency), glow discharge source design (e.g. flow tube lengths), and SFMS mass spectra acquisition conditions (e.g. integration time) are evaluated to achieve low sputtering rates, high mass spectra acquisition rates and improved depth resolution. At the optimize conditions Zn coatings deposited by arc-spray and electrodeposition are analysed before and after heat treatments to evaluate the diffusion of different key elements. Moreover, results are validated using femtosecond laser ablation (fs-LA)-ICP-MS, which provides additional information about the heterogeneous distribution of some elements in the Zn coatings. KW - GDMS KW - Pulsed-GD-SFMS KW - Depht profiling KW - Zn KW - Aluminium PY - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c9ja00189a VL - 34 IS - 11 SP - 2252 EP - 2260 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - London AN - OPUS4-49451 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -