Efficient Preparation of Nanoparticle-Reinforced Nickel-based Composite Coating with Highly Preferred (220) Orientation

Abstract Nanoparticle-reinforced metal matrix composite coatings have significant potential in mechanical part surface strengthening owing their excellent mechanical properties. This paper reports a phenomenon in which the grain orientation gradually evolves to (220) as the deposition current density increases when preparing nanoparticle-reinforced nickel-based composite coatings through jet electrodeposition (JED). During the preparation of the Ni-SiC composite coatings, the deposition current density increased from 180 A/dm2 to 220 A/dm2, and TC(220) gradually increase from 41.4% to 97.7%. With an increase of TC(220), the self-corrosion potential increases from −0.575 to −0.477 V, the corrosion current density decreases from 9.52 μA/cm2 to 2.76 μA/cm2, the diameter of the corrosion pits that after 10 days of immersion in a 3.5 wt% NaCl solution decreases from 278–944 nm to 153–260 nm, and the adhesion of the coating increases from 24.9 N to 61.6 N. Compared a conventional electrodeposition (CED), the Ni-SiC composite coating using JED has the advantages of a smooth surface morphology, high corrosion resistance, and strong adhesion, which are more obvious with an increase in TC(220).