Morphological, structural, microhardness and corrosion characterisations of electrodeposited Ni-Mo and Cr coatings

Abstract

The corrosion resistance of electrodeposited Cr and Ni-Mo coatings and the influence of heat treatment on the crystallographic structure, morphology and microhardness properties were investigated here. The characterisations were carried out using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) techniques. Corrosion tests were performed at room temperature in 10-1 mol dm-3 NaCl solutions and by potentiodynamic linear polarization technique.TheMo content in the layer and current efficiency increased with the molybdate ion concentration in the plating solution, while the surface morphology evolved from rough and homogeneous to cracked surface with the increase of the amount of Mo in the layer. The electrochemical corrosion tests showed that the Cr coatings have better corrosion resistance than the Ni-Mo coatings in chloride medium and that all the studied coatings corrode in chloride medium. Ni-13Mo coating has the nobler corrosion behavior among the studied Ni-Mo coatings. The microhardness of the Ni-13Mo coatings increased as the annealing temperature increased which is related with the precipitation of Ni, Ni4Mo and NiMo phases during the heat treatment of this coating. Ni-13Mo coating is a potential substitute for chromium coating in industrial applications when operating at temperatures higher than 100 ºC and good microhardness properties are required.