Effect of duty cycle variation on Nickel electrodeposits at 10 Hz frequency

Abstract

In this paper, nano nickel coating was made by pulsed electrodeposition technique to improve the surface properties of base metal. The developed nickel coating was characterized using SEM, Xrd, Vickers microhardness, Potentiodynamic polarization and ball on plate wear testing. X-ray diffraction studies shown that predominant (111) crystalline plane and finer grain size were obtained with lower duty cycle at 10 Hz frequency of pulse current. Pitting corrosion resistance of coated samples was evaluated at 3.5 wt. % of sodium chloride solution. An improvement of corrosion protection efficiency and good mechanical properties were achieved at lower duty cycle. As the duty cycle decreases, the corrosion current and wear rate decrease, and the micro hardness value increases. The average grin size was observed to be 75 nm and the newly developed nickel coated surface shown strong metallurgical bonding with the low carbon steel substrate material.