Ultra-low-power preparation of multilayer nanocrystalline NiCo binary alloy coating by electrochemical additive manufacturing
Introduction
Metal components are subjected to a variety of conditions including wear, oxidation, corrosion, etc., and these failures severely limit the actual service life of the engineering components. The interaction between the surface of the component and the environment plays a vital role and limits its use. Appropriate strengthening treatment on the surface of the components can change the structure and performance of the material surface. Preparing a coating on the surface of the component is an effective way to improve the service life of the component [1,2]. Compared to other techniques such as physical and chemical vapor deposition, plasma spraying, laser melting, etc., the advantages of direct electrodeposition are its proven process, wide applicability, moderate cost, and precise control of coating thickness and structure even on complex structures.
Electrodeposition of NiCo binary alloy coatings is a good choice in point for surface strengthening applications [[3], [4], [5], [6], [7]]. Although Co and its salts are more expensive than Ni, the improved engineering properties of the electrodeposited Co or NiCo alloys offer significant benefits and potential for engineering applications. Today, NiCo alloys are of great practical value not only for protective coatings such as wear and corrosion resistance, but also for decorating metal surfaces with color. The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classifies Cr as an extremely hazardous substance [8], so it is urgently needed to replace hard Cr with low-cost materials in practical applications. NiCo coating is considered to be less harmful and is one of the alternatives to Cr coating. Another important aspect is that NiCo alloys can form solid solutions over the entire concentration range, theoretically making alloys of any composition. In the preparation of NiCo coatings, electrodeposition is commonly used due to its low cost and high flexibility compared to other techniques (single or multi-layer deposition is intermittent or gradient deposition), no thermal damage and no need for high temperatures and pressures [[9], [10], [11]].
Additive manufacturing is an area-selective preparation technology based on the discrete-stacking and layer by layer build-up principle [12]. With the rise of additive manufacturing, many traditional technologies have changed in the concept of constituency manufacturing. For example, electron beam and laser welding have developed electron beam and laser 3D printing [13,14]. The electrodeposition can also be used for electrochemical additive manufacturing (ECAM). The principle of ECAM is to deposit metal in local areas by means of area-selective electrodeposition to draw the required pattern [[15], [16], [17], [18]]. Billy Wu [15] team of Imperial College London used ECAM to prepare Cu materials to study point deposition, line deposition and surface deposition. It is proved that the printed copper structure exhibits a polycrystalline nature. As the electric potential increases, the grain size decreases, resulting in higher Vickers hardness and electronic resistivity. Yabin Yang [18] conducted a detailed study on the electrolyte meniscus of the ECAM print head, and proposed the micro-controlled flow structure and its influence on the deposition material, which provides a research basis for the subsequent improvement of ECAM. Compared with other types of area-selective manufacturing technology, the area-selective electrodeposition of ECAM is still in the embryonic stage of development. In particular, the research on the area-selective electrodeposition of NiCo nanocrystalline coatings is now blank. Due to the application potential and irreplaceability of NiCo alloy coatings in various industries, the study of area-selective electrodeposited NiCo coatings will bring huge research value to new research areas and directions. Therefore, this paper studies the preparation of NiCo binary alloy coating based on the principle of ECAM, and analyzes its phase structure and properties.
Section snippets
The principle
The ECAM equipment is shown in Fig. 1, and its principle is to perform area-selective electrodeposition on the surface of the substrate. By squeezing the electrolyte out of the deposition port, hemispherical droplets are formed by the surface tension of the liquid (Fig. 1b). The electrodeposition region is formed by the contact of the hemispherical droplets with the substrate, and a circular coating layer is drawn after the deposition region has moved along a certain path (Fig. 1c). Temperature
Results and discussion
The current-time curve exhibited in conventional DC deposition is a linear curve. As shown in Fig. 2, the current-time data displayed by this ECAM method is a waveform curve. The regular fluctuations in the current-time data are due to the regular movement of the deposition area where the droplets are in contact. The reason for this is due to the decrease in the area of the deposited area as it moves to the edge of the circular sample, which causes the current to drop. Therefore, in the process
Conclusions
Through the principle of electrochemical additive manufacturing (ECAM), it is possible to prepare a free patterned multilayer nanocrystalline metal coating on the substrate surface. Since ECAM performs metal preparation by the principle of area-selective electrodeposition, there is a discrete-stacking process in the deposition process. This layer-by-layer accumulation process is very easy to produce a regular multilayer structure, which is easier to implement and control than the previous
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Fan Zhang: Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Zhengjun Yao: Supervision, Conceptualization. Oleksandr Moliar: Investigation. Zelei Zhang: Software. Xuewei Tao: Writing - review & editing.
Declaration of competing interest
This manuscript has not been published and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. We have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
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