Fast Electroless Ni-P Coating on AM60 Magnesium Alloy at Low Bath Temperature

Abstract

The Ni-P coatings were deposited on AM60 magnesium alloy by electroless plating process without or with accelerators. Without accelerators, the deposition rate is slow and required high bath temperature to obtain compact coating. There have many defects on the surface of the Ni-P coatings which deposited at high bath temperature. The composite accelerators were introduced into the bath for improving the growth rate and the quality of the Ni-P coating. Uniform, with no pores or cracks, “cauliflower-like” structure and complete Ni-P coatings were deposited only taken 20 min with additives at low bath temperature. The XRD result indicates that the structure of the Ni-P coating is amorphous nickel. The corrosion test results indicated that the corrosion resistance of this coated AM60 magnesium alloys increases distinctly as compared to bare alloys.