Contact fatigue behavior of nano-ZrO2/Ni coating prepared by electro-brush plating

Nano-ZrO2/Ni composite coatings were prepared through co-depositing nano-ZrO2 particles and pure nickel by electro-brush plating (EBP). By analyzing the effects of microstructure, annealing and load on contact fatigue life, the contact fatigue behavior of the nano-ZrO2/Ni EBP coating was investigated. Furthermore, the contact fatigue behaviors of the nano-ZrO2/Ni EBP coating and the nickel EBP coating were compared. The results show that the nano-ZrO2 particles in the as-deposited nano-ZrO2/Ni EBP coating were partially conglomerated, and the microstructure of the annealed nano-ZrO2/Ni EBP coating was finer. Under the as-deposited condition, the contact fatigue life of the nano-ZrO2/Ni EBP coating was much lower than that of the nickel EBP coating. After the annealing process, the contact fatigue life of the nano-ZrO2/Ni EBP coating was greatly increased and much higher than that of the nickel EBP coating. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of the fatigue fracture zones and the transmission electron microscope (TEM) images of microstructure of the deformation layer show that the annealing could improve the ductility of the nano-ZrO2/Ni EBP coating, and the nano-ZrO2 particles could restrain the propagation of the fatigue cracks, which contributed to the enhancement of the contact fatigue properties of the nano-ZrO2/Ni EBP coating.