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Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Applied Surface Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apsusc

Electrochemical and structural properties of electroless Ni-P-SiC

nanocomposite coatings
Amir Farzaneh a,b , Maysam Mohammadi c,∗ , Maryam Ehteshamzadeh a,c ,
Farzad Mohammadi d
a
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran
b
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tabriz, Iran
c
High Technology and Environmental Sciences, International Center for Science, Materials Research Institute, Kerman, Iran
d
Department of Materials Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Silicon carbide (SiC) nanoparticles were co-deposited with nickel-phosphorous (Ni-P) coatings through
Received 17 January 2013 electroless deposition process. The effects of annealing temperature and SiC contents on properties of the
Received in revised form 24 March 2013 coatings were investigated. Corrosion performance of the coatings was examined using potentiodynamic
Accepted 26 March 2013
polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). X-ray diffraction and Scanning Electron
Available online xxx
Microscopy (SEM) were employed for structural and morphological studies, respectively. It was shown
that the structure of the as-deposited Ni-P-SiC nanocomposite coating was amorphous, and changed to
Keywords:
the nickel crystal, nickel phosphide (Ni3 P) and silicide compounds (Nix Siy ) with heat treatment. Addition
Electroless coating
Nano-composite
of the SiC concentration in the coating bath affected both composition and morphology of the coating.
Corrosion Presence of SiC nanoparticles in the Ni-P coating enhanced the corrosion resistance of the coating. Higher
Heat treatment SiC contents, however, negatively affected the corrosion behavior of the coatings. Heat treatment also
improved the corrosion resistance of the Ni-P-SiC coating. Annealing at 400 ◦ C decreased the corrosion
current density of the coating by approximately 60%.
© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction as an alternative for “hard chromium” coating in the automotive

Electroless nickel coatings (Ni-P) are widely used in various
industries since they have interesting properties such as high wear
and corrosion resistance, good weldability, electrical conductivity
and uniform coating thickness [1,2]. Co-deposition of solid parti-
cles into the Ni-P coating can improve tribological properties of
the coating [3]. These solid particles can be either hard or lubricant
particles. Hard particles, such as Al2 O3 [4], TiO2 [5], CeO2 , Si3 N4 [6]
and diamond [7], enhance wear resistance of Ni-P coating as they
increase the coating hardness. Lubricant particles including PTFE,
MoS2 [8,9], graphite [10] and carbon nanotubes [11], on the other
hand, have been used to decrease the friction coefficient of the Ni-P
coating.
Among the hard particles, silicon carbide (SiC) is the most com-
mercially used particle. Co-deposition of SiC particles can result in
appropriate tribological properties for electroless nickel coating. It
is noteworthy that electroless Ni-P-SiC coating has been considered
and aerospace industries [12,13].
Many studies have been done on the Ni-P-SiC coating using
micron-size particles [13–18]. However, interesting properties
of nanomaterials necessitate the investigation of fabrication and
characterization of Ni-P-SiC composite coatings using nano-sized
particles.
Mechanical and tribological properties of the Ni-P-SiC
nanocomposite coatings have been subjects of many studies
[19–22]. Corrosion resistance of these coatings, as one of the
important properties, may also be affected by co-deposition of the
SiC nanoparticles. Comprehensive study on the influences of SiC
nanoparticles on corrosion performance of Ni-P coating has not
yet been performed.
This work deals with the influences of the SiC nanoparticles and
heat treatment on the properties of the electroless Ni-P-SiC coating.
Morphology, structure, microhardness and corrosion resistance of
the coatings were investigated in this study.

∗ Corresponding author. Present address: The University of British Columbia,

2. Experimental procedure
Department of Materials Engineering, 309-6350 Stores Road, V6T1Z4 Vancouver,
Canada. Tel.: +1 604 822 6964. Electroless Ni-P and Ni-P-SiC coatings were deposited on mild
E-mail address: maysam.mohammadi84@gmail.com (M. Mohammadi). steel specimens (30 × 50 × 6 mm). Prior to the electroless plating,

0169-4332/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2013.03.156

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Table 1
Electroless bath composition and operating conditions.

Bath composition Operating conditions

Nickel sulphate (g/L) 21 pH 4.5 ± 0.2

Sodium hypophosphite (g/L) 24 Deposition temp. (◦ C) 90 ± 1
Lactic acid (g/L) 23 Bath vol. (mL) 250
Picric acid (g/L) 2.2 SiC content (g/L) 2–8

the substrates were polished to 1000-grid emery paper followed

by cleaning in acetone, acid pickling in sulfuric acid (H2 SO4 , 8% Vol.
for 1 min) and immersion in ethanol. The substrates were rinsed in
doubly distilled water after each of the pretreatment steps.
The chemical composition of the electroless plating bath and the
coating operating conditions are listed in Table 1. These deposition
conditions resulted in a nickel coating matrix containing 10 wt.%
phosphorous. ␤-SiC nanoparticles with average size of 50 nm were
used as the SiC source. Cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB)
was also added to the plating bath as a surfactant to achieve parti-
cles dispersion and surface charge adjustment.
Electroless nickel bath containing the SiC particles and the sur-
factant was stirred magnetically for 24 h followed by 20 min of
ultrasonic dispersion before plating. Magnetic stirring was used to
keep particles suspended during the deposition process. The depo-
sition processes were carried out for 60 min to achieve the coating
thickness of 14–16 ␮m. Heat treatment of the coatings was per-
formed at two temperatures of 400 and 700 ◦ C for 60 min in argon
atmosphere.
X-ray diffraction analysis (Philips X‘pert, Cu K␣ radiation) and
Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM, VEGA/TESCAN) were used for
structural and morphological investigations, respectively. Hard-
ness measurements were carried out on the cross section of the
coatings, using Vickers diamond indentation under 25 gf loads. The
average value of five different points was reported for each speci-
men.
Electrochemical studies were conducted at room temperature
using 263A EG&G Princeton Applied Research (PAR) potentio-
stat/galvanostat and a standard three electrodes cell in an aqueous
solution of 3.5 wt.% NaCl. Platinum wire and saturated calomel
electrode (SCE) were used as the counter electrode and ref-
erence electrode, respectively. Defined samples area of 1 cm2
was exposed to the electrolyte. The potentiodynamic polarization
curves were recorded at potential scan rate of 1 mV s−1 . Elec-
trochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements were
performed with an amplitude of 5 mV at Open Circuit Potential
(OCP) in the frequency range of 105 –10−2 Hz. The samples were
kept in the electrolyte to reach near steady-state conditions as
monitored by OCP before running electrochemical experiments.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Effects of heat treatment
The Ni-P-SiC coatings (deposited in the presence of 2 g/L SiC)
were used to investigate the effects of heat treatment on the coat-
ing properties. Heat treatment temperature of 400 ◦ C was selected
based on its optimum effect on mechanical properties of electroless
Ni-P coating [23]. Dong et al. [24] and Jiaqiang et al. [25] investi-
gated annealing temperatures of up to 600 ◦ C for the electroless
Ni-P-SiC coating. However, little attention has been paid to effects
of higher annealing temperatures. Therefore, the influences of heat
treatment at 700 ◦ C on properties of Ni-P-SiC coating were also
investigated in this study.
Fig. 1. XRD patterns of as-deposited and heat treated Ni-P-SiC coatings at different
temperatures.
3.1.1. Microstructure and microhardness
The XRD patterns of the as-deposited and heat treated electro-
less Ni-P-SiC coatings are presented in Fig. 1. XRD pattern of the
as-deposited coating shows a broad peak at 44.5◦ , which represents
the nickel matrix. This pattern indicates that the as-deposited Ni-P
coating matrix was amorphous, which could be due to the lattice
disorder that caused by phosphorous atoms in the nickel coating
structure [1,26,27]. There is only one more peak in the XRD pattern
of the as-deposited coating (2 = 36.12◦ ), which corresponds to the
SiC particles.
As Fig. 1(a) shows, the broad peak of the nickel is eliminated
after heat treatment. This reveals that the Ni-P coating matrix was
crystallized through the heat treatments. XRD results also show the
Ni3 P phase in the heat treated coatings. Annealing at high temper-
ature causes phosphorous segregation in the grain boundaries of
the matrix and formation of phosphorous rich zones. Nickel atoms
from the matrix react with phosphorous atoms once the phospho-
rous content in the area exceeds a certain amount, contributing to
precipitation of Ni3 P with body centered tetragonal (BCT) crystal
structure [28,29].
Formation of Nix Siy phases (Ni3 Si, Ni2 Si, Ni5 Si2 , etc.) in the Ni-P-
SiC coating, which are marked in the XRD patterns (Fig. 1(a)), was
the other effect of heat treatment. Nickel atoms can diffuse into the
SiC lattice at high temperature. As a consequence, the Si C bonds
are broken and the Si atoms react with the Ni atoms, contributing
to formation of nickel silicides (Nix Siy ) [25].
Fig. 1(b) compares the effects of annealing temperature on the
structure of the Ni-P-SiC coating. As apparent, the Ni3 P and Nix Siy
diffraction peaks were heightened when heat treatment temper-
ature was from 400 to 700 ◦ C. The full width of the peaks at
their half maximum (FWHM) also decreased with temperature.
These changes reveal that heat treatment at higher temperatures

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Table 2
Corrosion parameters of the as-deposited and heat treated Ni-P-SiC coatings deter-
mined from the polarization curves.

Annealing Temperature icorr (␮A cm−2 ) Ecorr (mV) RP ( cm2 )

As-deposited 1.65 −606 13,940

400 ◦ C 0.56 −512 41,070
700 ◦ C 0.79 −560 29,114

of the samples (Rp ) can be calculated by considering their corrosion

current densities and using Eqs. (1) and (2).
B
icorr = (1)
RP

Fig. 2. Microhardness evaluation of Ni-P-SiC coatings as a function of heat treatment
temperature.
encouraged both the formation and growth of the Ni3 P and Nix Siy
phases [30].
Fig. 2 shows the effect of annealing temperature on the micro-
hardness of the Ni-P-SiC coating. The coating microhardness
increased from 600 to 1300 HV after heat treatment at 400 ◦ C,
which can be attributed to the phase transition from amorphous
Ni-P to crystalline Ni3 P and Ni [24,31,32]. Fig. 2 also indicates that
further increase in the heat treatment temperature declined the
coating microhardness. It has been reported that semi-coherent
Ni3 P phases created at 400 ◦ C can be transformed to non-coherent
precipitates at higher temperatures, contributing to lower coating
microhardness. Grain growth of the crystalline Ni and Ni3 P phases
at 700 ◦ C can also reduces the coating microhardness [24,27].
 1 1
−1
B = 2.3( + ) (2)
ˇox ˇred
where ˇox and ˇred are the values of anodic and cathodic Tafel
slopes, respectively. Generally, the value of ˇox varies between 60
and 120 mV/dec, while ˇred ranges between 60 mV to infinity. It has
been shown that approximation of B = 26 mV provides a good esti-
mate of Rp from corrosion current density [33]. The values of the Rp
of the samples were calculated using Eq. (1) and the mentioned esti-
mation (B = 26 mV). The corrosion factors of the samples including
corrosion current densities, corrosion potentials and polarization
resistances are reported in Table 2.
According to Table 2, the heat treated Ni-P-SiC coating showed
lower corrosion current densities and higher polarization resis-
tance than the as-deposited coating. Comparing between the
corrosion current densities of the heat treated samples it was found
that annealing temperature play an important role on electro-
chemical behavior of the Ni-P-SiC coating. The coating that was

3.1.2. Electrochemical performance

Fig. 3 shows the potentiodynamic polarization curves of the as-
deposited and heat treated Ni-P-SiC coatings. This figure reveals
that the heat treatment, regardless of the annealing temperature,
shifted the polarization curve of the Ni-P-SiC coating to more posi-
tive potentials and lower current densities. This means that the heat
treatment affected the electrochemical behavior of the compos-
ite coating. Corrosion current density of the samples was obtained
using Tafel extrapolation. The values of the polarization resistance

Fig. 3. Potentiodynamic Polarization curves of the as-deposited and heat treated Fig. 4. Bode and Bode phase diagrams (a) and Nyquist plots (b) of the as-deposited
Ni-P-SiC coatings. and heat treated Ni-P-SiC coatings.

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Fig. 5. Schematic of equivalent circuit used for modeling the impedance spectra of
the coatings.

annealed at 400 ◦ C showed better corrosion resistance than the

coating annealed at 700 ◦ C.
The Bode, Bode phase and Nyquist plots of the as-deposited
and heat treated Ni-P-SiC coating are shown in Fig. 4. Bode plots
(Fig. 4(a)) demonstrate that the impedance values did not vary
in the frequency range of 105 –104 , which shows the solution
resistance. The impedance magnitude increased as the frequency
decreased to 0.1. According to Bode phase diagrams, the values of
the phase were the maximum at frequency range 100–20 Hz for
all the coatings. This indicates that the samples showed capacitive
behavior in this frequency range [34].
Different corrosion behavior of the as-deposited and heat
treated coatings is obvious from their Nyquest diagrams (Fig. 4(b)).
The electroless deposition method has been characterized by
formation a uniform and nonporous coating [1,2]. Therefore, elec-
trolyte can not simply diffuse into the layer. Moreover, the Nyquest
and Bode phase results showed one time constant in the investi-
gated frequency domain. Thus, a simple equivalent circuit shown in
Fig. 5 (Randles equivalent circuit) was used to model the EIS results
and determine the corrosion parameters of the coating.
In this circuit, RS is the solution resistance, and RC and CPE rep-
resent the charge transfer resistance and constant phase element of
double layer, respectively. Constant phase element (CPE) has been
introduced to imitate electrochemical behavior of an imperfect
capacitor. CPE is mainly used to explain the system heterogene-
ity and distribution of physical properties of the system [35–37].
The impedance of CPE is defined as:
1
ZCPE = n (3)
Q (iω)
where Q is the general admittance function (with the unit of
Fcm−2 sn−1 ), ω is the angular frequency and n represents the devia-
tion of real capacitance from ideal capacitance. The average double
layer capacitance (Cdl ) can be calculated using Eq. (4) [38].
1−n
n
Q = Cdl (RS−1 + RC−1 )
The experimental and calculated impedance results of the as-
deposited and heat treated Ni-P-SiC coatings are presented in Fig. 6,
which shows a good match between experimental and simulated
data. The value for  square was less than 10−4 in all cases rep-
resenting an acceptable fit. The calculated value of the electrical
circuit components for the as-deposited and heat treated Ni-P-SiC
coatings are reported in Table 3.
Table 3
Calculated impedance parameters of as-deposited and heat treated Ni-P-SiC
coatings.
Annealing temperature RS ( cm2 ) RC ( cm2 ) Cdl (␮F cm−2 )
As-deposited 7.98 13,212 16.87
400 ◦ C 8.58 59,784 6.36
700 ◦ C 8.23 28,123 14.75
Fig. 6. Experimental and modeled Nyquest spectrum of the as-deposited and heat
treated Ni-P-SiC coatings.
Comparing the results in Tables 2 and 3 demonstrates that the
RP values calculated from polarization curves are different from RC
values obtained from EIS results. The difference is less than factor
of two, which is the expected error when using B = 26 mV as an
approximation in Eq. (1) [33].
The EIS results indicate that the heat treatment increased
the charge transfer resistance (RC ) of the Ni-P-SiC coating and
decreased the double layer capacitance (Cdl ). These reveals that,
like what was observed from the polarization curves, heat treated
samples had better corrosion resistance than the as-deposited one.
It is also apparent that the heat treatment at 400 ◦ C provided better
corrosion behavior for the Ni-P-SiC coating than at 700 ◦ C.
Negative effect of heat treatment on the corrosion resistance of
electroless Ni-P coating has been reported previously [39]. Crys-
tallization of nickel coating and formation of Ni3 P phase, and
consequently larger surface proportion of the grain boundaries,
have been reported as the reasons for such phenomenon. Thus, the
improvement in the corrosion resistance of the Ni-P-SiC coating
with heat treatment can be attributed to the SiC particles and the
(4) interaction between these particles and the Ni-P coating matrix.
As previously mentioned here, nickel atoms can diffuse into the
SiC lattice at high temperature and provide more coherent bound-
aries between the SiC particles and nickel matrix [29]. Moreover,
reaction of Ni and SiC particles during the heat treatment may
cause shrinkage in the coating, contributing to a coating with lower
porosity and higher compactness [25]. As a result, heat treatment
can improve the barrier property and consequently corrosion resis-
tance of the Ni-P-SiC coating.
Electrochemical measurements also showed that increasing the
heat treatment temperature from 400 to 700 ◦ C improved the cor-
rosion resistance of the coating. Conversion of the semi-coherent
Ni3 P phase to non-coherent phase could contribute to the lower
n corrosion resistance of the Ni-P-SiC heat treated at 700 ◦ C [24,30].
0.815 Furthermore, larger amount of nickel silicides formed at 700 ◦ C may
0.933 increase the inhomogeneity of the coating and cause more number
0.858 of corrosion microcells, and consequently higher corrosion rate.

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Fig. 7. EDX spectra of the Ni-P (a) and the Ni-P-SiC coating deposited from a solution containing 2(b) and 8 g/L SiC (c), and variation of SiC content of the coating (wt.%) as a
function of SiC concentration in the bath (e).

3.2. Effects of SiC content
3.2.1. Morphology and composition
Effect of SiC particles concentration on the coatings composition
coating was studied using Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy
(EDX). Fig. 7(a–c) show the EDX spectra of the Ni-P and the Ni-P-SiC
coatings deposited in the presence of 0, 2 and 8 g/L SiC nanoparti-
cles, respectively. Weight percentages of nickel, phosphorous and
silicon were roughly estimated through this analysis. Since the SiC
particles were the only source of Si in the coating, the Si wt.% was
used to estimate the SiC content. Dependence of SiC content of the
composite coating on SiC particles concentration in the deposition
bath is shown in Fig. 7(d). This figure reveals that the amount of SiC
particles co-deposited into the Ni-P coating increased as the SiC
concentration in the deposition bath was increased. However, this
effect was more significant in lower concentrations of SiC particles.
Surface morphologies of the electroless Ni-P-SiC coatings fabri-
cated in the presence of 0, 2, 4 and 8 g/L SiC nanoparticles are shown
in Fig. 8. The SEM images indicate that the coating morphology was
affected by co-deposition of the SiC particles. As apparent, higher
SiC concentration resulted in smaller spherical nodules size of the
coating. This may interpreted as the SiC nanoparticles may either
provide more nucleation sites for the Ni-P deposition or limit the
lateral growth of the Ni-P layer.
Comparison between Fig. 8(c) and (d) reveals that an increase
in the SiC particles concentration from 4 g/L to 8 g/L has little influ-
ence on the coating morphology, however, caused presence of tiny
cracks in the coating (shown by white arrows in Fig. 8(d)). Forma-
tion of the cracks could be due to higher stress levels in the coating
induced by more SiC particles co-deposited into the coating.
3.2.2. Electrochemical performance
As shown in the previous section, heat treatment at 400 ◦ C
improved corrosion resistance of the Ni-P-SiC coating. Therefore,
all the coatings were heat treated at 400 ◦ C before electrochemical
investigations.

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Fig. 8. SEM micrographs of the Ni-P-SiC coatings produced in SiC concentration of 0 (a), 2 (b), 4 (c) and 8 g/L (d).

Fig. 9 illustrates the potentiodynamic polarization behavior of
the Ni-P and the Ni-P-SiC coatings deposited in different SiC con-
centration. Co-deposition of SiC nanoparticles, depending on their
content, shifted the polarization curves to less negative potentials
and lower current densities. However, these changes did not follow
a linear trend with SiC contents. The value of corrosion current
densities, corrosion potentials and the calculated polarization resis-
tances of the coatings are summarized in Table 4. Comparing the
corrosion current densities of the coatings with that of bare mild
steel, which was reported in the authors’ previous publication [30]
reveals that all of the investigated electroless nickel coatings can be
used for corrosion protection of mild steel in saline environments.
These results also reveal that the composite coatings showed bet-
ter corrosion resistance than the Ni-P coating. The lowest corrosion
current density was shown by the Ni-P-SiC coating deposited in the
presence of 2 g/L SiC nanoparticle.
The Bode, Bode phase and the Nyquist plots of the Ni-P-
SiC coatings are shown in Fig. 10. Variation of the impedance

Table 4 Table 5
Corrosion parameters of Ni-P-SiC coatings determined from the polarization curves. Calculated impedance parameters of the Ni-P, Ni-P-SiC coatings.

Sample icorr (␮A cm−2 ) Ecorr (mV) RP ( cm2 ) Samples RS ( cm2 ) RC ( cm2 ) Cdl (␮F cm−2 ) n

Ni-P (0 g/L SiC) 2.51 −662 9123 Ni-P 7.35 29,455 29.99 0.77
Ni-P-SiC (2 g/L) 0.56 −512 41,070 Ni-P-2 g/L SiC 8.58 59,784 6.36 0.93
Ni-P-SiC (4 g/L) 0.93 −537 24,730 Ni-P-4 g/L SiC 7.49 49,141 12.75 0.85
Ni-P-SiC (8 g/L) 1.27 −618 18,110 Ni-P-8 g/L SiC 7.65 32,533 22.67 0.88

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Fig. 9. Polarization curves of Ni-P and Ni-P-SiC coatings.
magnitude and phase with frequency (Fig. 10(a)) were similar to
what was explained in previous section.
The Nyquest diagrams of the Ni-P-SiC coating (Fig. 10(b)) were
modeled using the equivalent circuit that was shown in Fig. 5. A
good match between the experimental and calculated data was
achieved as the values of  square were less than 10−4 . The fitting
results of EIS measurements for the Ni-P and Ni-P-SiC coatings are
listed in Table 5. The variation of the RC value with the SiC content
of the coating was similar to that of the RP (Table 4).
Electrochemical studies revealed that incorporation of SiC
nanoparticles into the Ni-P coating improved corrosion resistance
of the coating. This effect may be attributed to the lower effective
metallic surface area of the Ni-P-SiC coatings compared to that of
the Ni-P coating [40]. Volume fraction of the SiC particles in the
coatings can be calculated using densities of the SiC particles and
Fig. 10. Bode and Bode phase diagrams (a) and Nyquist plots (b) of the Ni-P and
Ni-P-SiC coatings.
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7
Ni-%P matrix as well as SiC wt.% of the coating (Fig. 7(d)). It can be
assumed that the area covered by SiC particles on the surface of the
coatings is the same as their vol.%. Thus, the ratio of metallic surface
area of the Ni-P-SiC coatings to that of the Ni-P coating would be in
the range of 0.72–0.86 (±0.2). The variation of the corrosion current
density of the coating with SiC co-deposition, however, was more
significant than the variation of the metallic surface area. There-
fore, different metallic surface area of the coatings could not be the
only reason for their different electrochemical performance.
The incorporation of the SiC nanoparticles into the Ni-P coating
may enhance the coating compactness and limit diffusion of the
corrosive species into the coating, contributing to the better cor-
rosion resistance. Comparing the obtained electrochemical results
with those reported by Huang et al. [41] it can be concluded that the
nano-scale SiC particles have more positive effects on the corrosion
behavior of the Ni-P coatings compared to micro-scale particles.
As was shown, increasing the SiC concentration from 2 g/L to 4
and 8 g/L lowered the charge transfer resistance (RC ), and increased
the double layer capacitance (Cdl ) and corrosion current density
(icorr ) of the coatings. These variations reveal that further increase in
the SiC concentration in the deposition bath resulted in the coatings
with lower corrosion resistance. This can be attributed to larger
number of SiC particles codeposited into the coating, which, in
turn, can decrease the coating homogeneity. The Ni-P-SiC coating
deposited in the presence of 8 g/L SiC particles showed the lowest
corrosion resistance among the composite coatings. This behavior
can be due to the presence of cracks and defects in this coating
(see Fig. 8(d)). These cracks allow the corrosive species to perme-
ate through the coating and attack larger surface area of the coating
or the substrate.
According to the electrochemical studies, Ni-P-SiC composite
coating that was deposited in the presence of 2 g/L SiC nanoparti-
cle provided the optimum corrosion performance among the other
investigated coatings, which improved the corrosion resistance of
the Ni-P coating by approximately 70%.
4. Conclusion
The structure, morphology and corrosion behavior of the
electroless Ni-P matrix composite coatings co-deposited with
nano-sized SiC particles were investigated. The main conclusions
are as follows:
Co-deposition of the SiC nanoparticles into the Ni-P coating
affected the morphology of the deposited coating and decreased
the nodules size. Corrosion performance of the Ni-P coating was
improved by co-deposition of the SiC nanoparticles. However, SiC
concentration higher than 2 g/L negatively affected the corrosion
resistance of the coating. The as-deposited Ni-P-SiC coating had
an amorphous structure, while the heat treated composite coat-
ing contained a combination of crystalline nickel, Ni3 P and silicide
compounds (Nix Siy ). Heat treatment also enhanced the corrosion
resistance of the Ni-P-SiC coating. The Ni-P-SiC coating heat treated
at 400 ◦ C had the best performance in term of corrosion resistance
compared to the as-deposited coating and the heat treated coating
at 700 ◦ C.
This study showed that the Ni-P-SiC nanocomposite coatings,
like Ni-P coating, can be used in the saline corrosive environments
to improve corrosion resistance of mild steel, in addition to its
mechanical properties. However, investigation of the long term
corrosion performance of the Ni-P-SiC nanocomposite coatings is
highly recommended.
Acknowledgment
Funding support for this work was provided by Vice Chancellor
Research of International center for Science & High Technology and
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
G Model
APSUSC-25446; No. of Pages 8
8 A. Farzaneh et al. / Applied Surface Science xxx (2013) xxx–xxx
Environmental Sciences according to the research project number
618801, which is highly appreciated and acknowledged.
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