Revealing the erosion-corrosion performance of sphere-shaped morphology of nickel matrix nanocomposite strengthened with reduced graphene oxide nanoplatelets

Abstract

Exceptional mechanical and better surface properties of metals are highly desirable for current pioneering applications. Recently, the electrochemical deposition is regarded as one of the appropriate methods to produce nanocomposite coatings with higher mechanical and excellent corrosion resistance properties. In this work, nickel-metal matrix nanocomposite coating reinforced with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) platelets has been fabricated with an electrochemical deposition technique to investigate the potential to improve the surface properties. The findings of this study demonstrate the impelling effect of rGO nanoplatelets on the mechanical and electrochemical properties of the produced nanocomposite coating. The sphere-like morphology, higher micro-hardness (504 HV) and enhanced erosion-corrosion resistance (4.07 Rct/kΩcm2) compared with a pure nickel coating (240 HV, 1.75 Rct/kΩcm2, respectively) are observed for nickel-rGO nanocomposite coating. Moreover, the thickness of the coating is significantly increased with the introduction of rGO nanoplatelets. The remarkable microstructure refinement is obtained which is supported by the intensity reduction of preferred planes of the Ni matrix. Furthermore, the grain sizes are decreased from 35.82 nm to 22.79 nm for rGO reinforced nanocomposite coating. The average roughness (Ra) (Ra: 41.7 to Ra: 342) and long-time erosion-corrosion performance are improved due to the strengthening effect of rGO nanosheets reinforcement.