Surfactant-free commercial electroless bath with low concentration of SiC nanoparticles to prepare the NiP-SiC nanocomposite coatings

Fabrication of NiP-SiC nanocomposite coatings through the electroless deposition in a commercial electrolyte containing the low concentrations of SiC nanoparticles on carbon steel substrate was studied in this work. The confirmation of co-deposition of Ni matrix and SiC nanoparticles was investigated by evaluating the effect on morphology, crystal structure, and corrosion behavior of the heat-treated coatings which were investigated by scanning electron microscope, x-ray diffraction (XRD), and electrochemical measurements, respectively. The XRD results revealed that the heat-treated NiP and NiP-SiC coatings consisted of Ni and Ni 3 P phases, which the calculated faction of Ni 3 P phase for NiP and NiP-SiC samples is 58.2 and 62.2%, respectively. The corrosion resistance of nanocomposite samples is higher than that of pure NiP sample (9 to 76% corrosion inhibition efficiency. The tribological behavior of the coatings was characterized by microhardness measurement and ‘pin on disk’ wear test. By co-deposition of SiC nanoparticles, the hardness of heat-treated NiP is significantly increased (near 25%) and the wear loss is reduced (near 48%), especially at high sliding distance during wear test. The sample prepared through the surfactant-free electroless bath containing the 1 g l −1 SiC nanoparticle showed the best corrosion as well as wear resistance.