Mojtaba Esmailzadeh

In this study, the coating of Ni/Cr3C2-NiCr composite by electrodeposition technique on copper alloy was investigated. Different coatings were formed with and without carbide particles to study the effect of carbide particles on the mechanical properties of coatings. The deposited layers were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to study the morphology of formed coatings, energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry (EDS) to study the chemical composition of coatings and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to examine phase and crystallinity of coatings. Microhardness and wear resistance tests were performed to evaluate mechanical properties of coatings. Optimum electrodeposition conditions were obtained when maximum amount of chromium carbide was used, achieving maximum hardness of 650 Hv, which was absolutely higher than that of the pure nickel deposited specimen. Results of wear test showed that the friction coefficient of Ni/Cr3C2-NiCr coating was as low as 0.41. Low friction coefficient, high hardness and resistance to wear of these coating are promising for applications that need such excellent properties.