John Aashish, Saeed Adil, Khan Zulfiqar Ahmad
NanoCorr, Energy & Modelling (NCEM) Research Group, Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus, Poole BH12 5BB, UK.
Micromachines (Basel). 2025 Jan 31;16(2):175. doi: 10.3390/mi16020175.
Research into the introduction of alloying and reinforcing nanocomposites into nickel (Ni) coatings has been motivated by the need for tribologically superior coatings that will improve energy efficiency. Using pulse electrodeposition, this work investigates the effects of adding cobalt (Co) as the alloying nanoparticle and silicon carbide (SiC), zirconium oxide (ZrO), and aluminium oxide (AlO) as reinforcing nanocomposites to Ni coatings. The surface properties, mechanical strength, nanotribological behaviour, and wettability of these coatings were analysed. Surface characteristics were evaluated by the use of a Scanning Electron Microscope, revealing a grain dimension reduction of approximately ~7-43% compared to pristine Ni coatings. When alloying and reinforcing nanocomposites were added to Ni coatings, nanoindentation research showed that there was an increase in nanohardness of ~12% to ~69%. This resulted in an improvement in the tribological performance from approximately 2% to 65%.The hydrophilic nature of Ni coatings was observed with wettability analysis. This study demonstrates that nanocomposite reinforcement can be used to customise Ni coatings for applications that require exceptional tribological performance. The results point to the use of Ni-Co coatings for electronics and aerospace sectors, with more improvements possible with the addition of reinforcing nanoparticles.
将合金化和增强纳米复合材料引入镍（Ni）涂层的研究，是受对摩擦学性能优越的涂层的需求所推动，这种涂层将提高能源效率。通过脉冲电沉积，这项工作研究了添加钴（Co）作为合金化纳米颗粒以及碳化硅（SiC）、氧化锆（ZrO）和氧化铝（AlO）作为增强纳米复合材料到镍涂层中的效果。分析了这些涂层的表面性能、机械强度、纳米摩擦学行为和润湿性。通过使用扫描电子显微镜评估表面特性，结果显示与原始镍涂层相比，晶粒尺寸减小了约7 - 43%。当向镍涂层中添加合金化和增强纳米复合材料时，纳米压痕研究表明纳米硬度提高了约12%至69%。这导致摩擦学性能提高了约2%至65%。通过润湿性分析观察到镍涂层具有亲水性。这项研究表明，纳米复合增强可用于定制镍涂层，以满足需要卓越摩擦学性能的应用。结果表明镍 - 钴涂层可用于电子和航空航天领域，添加增强纳米颗粒可能会有更多改进。
