In this work, the pure Ni coatings were synthesized on Q235 steel by using reverse pulsed electrode-position technique in sulphate-based baths with 0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 g/L phytic acid additive. The effect of phytic acid on the microstructure and micro-morphology of the sample was observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. And the effect of phytic acid on the corrosion resistance of the sample was studied by potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. The results demonstrated that the addition of phytic acid was in favor of the growth of nano-scale twins (NT) in the interior of grains, which was due to the lowered stacking fault energies of Ni during the electrodeposition, and the typical morphology of pyramidal islands on the surface. The results also demonstrated that the effect of phytic acid was not monotonous with increasing concentration: the passive current density i(p) was minimum and the charge transfer resistance R-t was maximum for the sample obtained from the bath with 0.2 g/L phytic acid, indicating that the sample obtained from the bath with 0.2 g/L phytic acid showed the best corrosion resistance. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.