Electrodeposition and Characterization of Nanocrystalline Ni-Fe Alloys

R Abdel-Karim,Y Reda,H Ahmed,M Muhammed,M Shoeib,S El-Raghy

doi:10.1155/2011/519274

Abstract

Nanocrystalline Ni-Fe deposits with different composition and grain sizes were fabricated by electrodeposition. Deposits with iron contents in the range from 7 to 31% were obtained by changing the Ni2+/Fe2+mass ratio in the electrolyte. The deposits were found to be nanocrystalline with average grain size in the range 20–30 nm. The surface morphology was found to be dependent on Ni2+/Fe2+mass ratio as well as electroplating time. The grains size decreased with increasing the iron content, especially in case of short time electroplating. Increasing the electroplating time had no significant effect on grain size. The microhardness of the materials followed the regular Hall-Petch relationship with a maximum value (762 Hv) when applying Ni2+/Fe2+mass ratio equal to 9.8.

Highlights

IntroductionNi-Fe alloys ranging in composition from Ni-rich Premalloy to the iron-rich Invar have variety of high technology applications due to their wide spectrum of properties
Ni-Fe alloys ranging in composition from Ni-rich Premalloy to the iron-rich Invar have variety of high technology applications due to their wide spectrum of properties. Due to their unique low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and soft magnetic properties, nickel-iron alloys have been used in industrial applications for over 100 years
Typical examples of applications that are based on the low CTE of Ni-Fe alloys include thermostatic bimetals, glass sealing, integrated circuit packing, cathode ray tube shadow masks, and composites molds/tooling and membranes for liquid natural gas tankers

Summary

Introduction

Ni-Fe alloys ranging in composition from Ni-rich Premalloy to the iron-rich Invar have variety of high technology applications due to their wide spectrum of properties. Due to their unique low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and soft magnetic properties, nickel-iron alloys have been used in industrial applications for over 100 years. Ni-Fe systems are fabricated in the form of alloys, multilayers, and nanowires using different techniques such as vacuum evaporation, cold rolling, single-roll rapid quenching, and sputtering electrodeposition [2, 3]. The electrodeposition technique allows the deposition under normal conditions of temperature and pressure and requires relatively inexpensive equipment [5]

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