Carbon steel is one of the most widely used alloys in many industries, however, its use is limited by its low corrosion resistance. Depositing a layer of phosphate on its surface improves the corrosion resistance as well as other properties, such as wear resistance, adhesion etc. Accordingly, preliminary studies demonstrated that carbon steel coated with phosphate layers can be used in the manufacture of carabiners for various fields: civil engineering, oil industry etc. Whereas, to demonstrate their capacity to operate in severe conditions related to fire rescue and extinguishing operations, it is necessary to evaluate the thermal behaviour of these materials. Thus, the main goal of this paper is to study the behaviour at high temperatures of three different types of phosphate layers deposited on carbon steel surface, by STA analysis. Also, the paper aims to study the formation of different phosphate layers by determining the types of compounds formed after the completion of the phosphating process, by XRD analysis.

Phosphating is the process of depositing, by conversion, a layer of insoluble phosphate compounds, on the metal’s surface. Although phosphate coatings have been studied since the early nineteenth century, they are not only still being studied, but are an area of interest due to their many applications. The advantages of these types of coatings are well known, such as the low cost of the deposition process, the improvement of corrosion resistance properties, and the improvement of wear resistance and adhesion of further deposited layers such as paint. All this, leads to studies on the constant improvement of the properties of the phosphate coating, by modifying the parameters of the phosphating process, as well as by modifying/replacing the substances used in the phosphating solutions with “environmentally friendly” solutions. Also due to these advantages, several researchers are studying the possibility of using phosphate coatings in fields such as civil engineering or medicine (biomaterials coatings). This paper aims to present some essential aspects of phosphating and to bring to the fore the latest research on “eco-friendly” phosphating solutions and the possibility of using the phosphating process in other fields, such as the medical field. Also, the paper aims to discuss the possibility of eliminating/reducing the harmful effect that the use of phosphating has on the environment.