• Cobley, Andrew
• Kerr, Ian
• Zhang, Yi
• Tudela-Montes, Ignacio
• Pal, Madan

Abstract

Thin Ni composite coatings with hBN and WS2 particles were ultrasonically-electrodeposited on Cu with no need of a surfactant. Although the combination of mechanical agitation and ultrasound yielded the best dispersions, ultrasound on its own during plating yielded coatings with a more uniform distribution of particles. Ni/hBN and Ni/WS2 composite coatings electrodeposited under ultrasound were characterized by different methods: GD-OES to estimate particle content, XRD to analyse the preferred orientation, FIB-SEM to analyse the surface morphology and microstructure, and microhardness tests to measure the hardness. Whereas Ni/hBN composite coatings showed little difference compared to pure Ni deposits, the incorporation of WS2 into Ni had a significant effect on the preferred orientation, the surface morphology and the grain size of the coatings, refining the Ni crystal down to the nano-scale. The latter had a significant effect in the hardness of the coatings, despite the ‘soft’ nature of the WS2 particles.<br/><br/>

Topics

• morphology
• dispersion
• surface
• grain
• nickel
• grain size
• scanning electron microscopy
• x-ray diffraction
• composite
• hardness
• electrodeposition
• surfactant
• atomic emission spectroscopy