The influence of Mo addition on the microstructure and its thermal stability for electrodeposited Ni films

An investigation was conducted to study the effect of molybdenum (Mo) alloying on the grain size and lattice defect structure in nanocrystalline nickel (Ni) films processed by electrodeposition. Moreover, the influence of saccharin addition to the electrolyte bath on the microstructure of Ni-Mo layers with low and high Mo contents was studied. It was found that the higher Mo content resulted in a larger dislocation density and twin fault probability as well as a smaller grain size. The addition of saccharin to the bath resulted in a further increase in the density of both dislocations and twin faults. It was also revealed that Mo alloying improved the thermal stability of the nanostructure in Ni films while saccharin addition yielded a reduction of stability. The reasons for these opposite behaviors were discussed in detail. In addition, the defect structure and its stability in Ni-Mo layers were compared with that for fine-grained bulk samples with the same composition but processed by severe plastic deformation.