Study of the corrosion resistance of electroless Ni-P deposits in a sodium chloride medium

Abstract

The corrosion resistance of electroless Ni-P deposits with phosphorous contents from 12% to 14% in sodium chloride solutions was studied. The deposits were immersed in 3.5% NaCl solutions for 29 d to obtain the electrochemical parameters and were examined in a standard salt spray test for 15 d respectively. The corrosion resistance of the deposits was studied by potentio-dynamic scan, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and cold-field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray detector (EDX). The patterns of XRD and the results of FE-SEM showed that the prepared deposits were amorphous. But after a 15 d standard salt spray test, a few pinholes appeared on the surface of the deposit and the weight content of phosphorus on the surface of the deposit was higher (which was beneficial to the formation of the passivation films) than that before the standard salt spray test when the nickel content was lower because the dissolved weight of nickel was greater than that of phosphorus. The results from potentio-dynamic scan and EIS showed that passivation films formed on the Ni-P deposit after immersion in the NaCl solutions, which decreased the corrosion rate of Ni-P samples. The results of this work show their potential applications in marine corrosion.