Fabrication of robust tungsten carbide particles reinforced CoNi super-hydrophobic composite coating by electrochemical deposition
Introduction
Materials in aggressive environments are usually subjected to corrosion process, which leads to partial or complete change of their properties, and in turn could induce serious accidents in industry and daily life. Recently, super-hydrophobic surfaces having a water contact angle (WCA) above 150° and a water sliding angle (WSA) below 10° draw tremendous attentions from the scientific community due to its potential application in different fields as anti-corrosion and/or self-cleaning coating [1,2]. Until now, lots of techniques have been developed to prepare super-hydrophobic surfaces, including electrochemical deposition [[3], [4], [5]], immersion method [6], etching [7], femtosecond laser machining [8,9], anodic oxidation [10] and chemical vapor deposition [11]. Due to its low cost and high-efficiency, the electrochemical deposition method is a facile technique to create the large-area of super-hydrophobic surfaces [12,13].
However, one of the major drawbacks to overcome for practical applications of super-hydrophobic coating, is its mechanical durability due to its fragile micro-nano structures, which is behind the surface super-hydrophobic property [14]. Different works in the literature reported that to increase the wear resistance and hardness of the electrodeposited coatings, inorganic particles including SiC [15], ZrO2 [16], Al2O3 [17], and TiO2 [18] have been co-electrodeposited into the metal matrix coatings. For example, Lidia Benea et al. investigated a greatly increased on wear and corrosion protection of nanostructured Ni/SiC composite coatings fabricated by electro-deposition [15]. Huang et al. demonstrated the wear resistance improvement of Ni/ZrO2 nanocomposite coatings prepared by electrodeposition using watts nickel baths with ZrO2 particles in suspension [16].
Tungsten carbide (WC) is a composite material with hardness similar to that of diamond, characterized by a Vickers number of around 2600. Furthermore, it is well known that the incorporated WC nanoparticles can reduce the nickel grain size reduction during the co-deposition process, therefore enhancing the mechanical durability and hardness of the composite coating [19,20]. Zhao et al. reported robust Ni-WC composite coatings prepared by electro-deposition. They show that this coating presents excellent abrasion resistance, and that the addition of WC particles decreases the Ni grain size and the chemical adsorption of stearic acid on the (111) Ni surface [21].
Furthermore, Wang et al. electrodeposited the micro-nano flower-like structured NiCo surface with super-hydrophobic properties [22]. However, the wear resistance of the as-prepared NiCo surface was not observed. In our recent work, we revealed that the electrodeposited super-hydrophobic CoNi coating exhibits better mechanical durability compared with other electrodeposited coatings [23]. In this work, the objective is to increase the mechanical durability of the electrodeposited CoNi coating through the addition of micro-nano WC particles to the electrolyte solution. Firstly the CoNi/WC composite coatings were fabricated, via the co-electrodeposition process under the constant current density. Then the wetting behaviors of the CoNi/WC composite coatings were measured, before and after modification with low surface energy materials. Finally the linear abrasion test and electrochemical test confirmed that the as-prepared CoNi/WC composite coatings with super-hydrophobicity possess high mechanical durability and corrosion resistance.
Section snippets
Materials
In this work, carbon steel was obtained from the general market and used as the substrate. The chemical products including boric acid (H3BO3), cobalt chloride (CoCl2·6H2O) and nickel chloride (NiCl2·6H2O) were provided by Sino pharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd. The low surface energy material perfluorooctyltrichlorosilane (C48H4Cl3F13Si, PFTEOS) and tungsten carbide (WC) particles were supplied by Shanghai Macklin Biochemical Co., Ltd.
Sample preparation
The carbon steel was cut into substrate, which size is
Result and discussion
In order to prepare CoNi/WC composite coating by co-electrochemical deposition method, micro-nano WC particles were added into the deposition solution. Fig. 1 shows the SEM images of the as-received micro-nano WC particles with low high magnification. It can be observed that the particles have irregular shape and a given size distribution varying from a few hundred nanometers up to a few micrometers.
Conclusion
In this work, the CoNi/WC composite coatings were prepared on carbon steel by the co-electrochemical deposition process by adding different amounts of micro-nano WC particles in the mixed solution at a current density of −65 mA/cm2. During the modification process, the PFTEOS molecules can induce the transit from super-hydrophilicity to super-hydrophobicity of the as-prepared composite coating with cauliflower like structures. The linear abrasion test revealed that the super-hydrophobic CoNi/WC
Authors' contributions
Conceptualization, Yanpeng Xue; Methodology, Yanyan Xue; Validation, Shuqiang Wang; Formal analysis, Shuqiang Wang; Investigation, Shuqiang Wang; Writing—original draft preparation, Shuqiang Wang; Writing—review and editing, Yanpeng Xue, Chaolei Ban, Abdelhafed Taleb and Ying Jin; Supervision, Ying Jin; Project administration, Yanpeng Xue; Funding acquisition, Yanpeng Xue and Chaolei Ban.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that we do not have any commercial or associative interest that represents a conflict of interest in connection with the work submitted.
Acknowledgement
Dr. Xue thanks the support from Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities China (Project ID: FRF-TP-18-009A1). Dr. Ban acknowledges the financial support by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China (Grant No. Zr2017MEM019).
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These authors contributed equally to this work.