In order to simulate the atmospheric corrosion of Zn-Al alloy coating on the steels in industrial zone, zinc hydroxysulfate (Zn-4(OH)(6)(SO4)center dot nH(2)O: ZHS) rust was artificially synthesized by hydrolyzing the ZnO particles in a mixture of aqueous ZnSO4 and Al-2(SO4)(3) solutions and the structure and properties of the products were examined by various means. Then, the atomic ratio X-Al = Al(III)/(Zn(II) + Al(III)) in the solution was ranged from 0 to 1.0. Adding Al(III) decreased the solution pH before aging to inhibit rust formation. Added Al(III) was easily incorporated in the particles than Zn(II). Increasing X-Al turned the major rust following as hexagonal plate-like ZHS particles > hexagonal plate-like Zn-Al layered double hydroxide (LDH) particles -> cubic Al6O5(SO4)(4)center dot H2O particles. These rust particles possessed a high adsorption affinity to corrosive CO2 gas. From these results, it can be supposed that atmospheric corrosion of Zn-Al alloy coating on the steels in industrial district produces the dense and compact rust layer composed of plate-like ZHS and/or Zn-Al-LDH particles owing to their preferred orientation to suppress further corrosion of steels. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.