Effect of choline chloride on electrodeposited superhydrophobic nickel film and the corrosion protection application

Abstract

Superhydrophobic nickel films constructed of micro-nano hierarchical structure were prepared on copper foil through one-step electrodeposition process with choline chloride as crystal modifier. The effects of electrodeposition parameters on surface morphology was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results demonstrated that the hierarchical nickel films consist of alternate flower-like and leaf-like structure. Under the optimal parameters, the nickel film has a static contact angle of 162 ± 1°, exhibiting excellent superhydrophobic property without organic surface modification. The superhydrophobic properties of the superhydrophobic nickel surface was analyzing via SEM, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In addition, the potentiodynamic polarization curve and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) of the superhydrophobic films in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution demonstrates that the fabricated superhydrophobic films have superior corrosion resistance. Furthermore, the superhydrophobicity of films shows good self-recovery performance through atmospheric exposure.