Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance, 2025 (SCI-Expanded)
In this study, stainless steel substrate was electrochemically coated with Ni-B/TiC nanocomposite material to improve its properties. A conventional Watts-type nickel bath containing suspended TiC nanoparticles was used as the electrolyte. The effect of current density on the properties of the obtained coatings was investigated at different TiC bath concentrations. The crystal structure, surface and cross-sectional morphology, elemental content of the coatings were evaluated by x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). In addition, corrosion resistance of the coatings was determined by Tafel and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. The increase in current density caused an increase in crystal grain size at low TiC bath content (from 9.3 to 14.4 nm for 5 g/L TiC), while it caused a decrease at high TiC bath content (from 16.5 to 14.5 nm for 9 g/L TiC). Moreover, the increase in current density has a decreasing effect on the microhardness values of nanocomposite coatings (from 750 to 568 HV for 5 g/L TiC). The current density increase changed the coating surface structure from a cauliflower-like appearance to a flatter appearance with circular mounds. From the EDS results, it was found that the TiC content in the nanocomposite coatings decreased with increasing current density. According to the Tafel and EIS data, the corrosion resistance increases with increasing current density in nanocomposite coatings (corrosion current decreased from 2.83 × 10−5 to 1.91 × 10−5 A).