Corrosion and wear properties of Ni-Sn-P ternary deposits on mild steel via electroless method

The rising necessity to improve corrosion and wear resistance of metals for engineering applications cannot be over emphasized. This has led to employing diverse models, method and techniques to obtain better corrosion and wear resistances for metallic materials and components which will otherwise fail during service. This work investigated the effect of Ni-P binary and Ni-Sn-P ternary electroless depositions on the corrosion and wear behavior of mild steel. Micro-structural examination using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis shows finer and more evenly distributed particle orientation across the substrate surface. The Ni-Sn-P ternary deposits on the mild steel displayed from the linear polarization analysis a better corrosion resistance with corrosion rate values of 0.000246 mm/yr as compared with that of the Ni-P binary deposits with 0.016672 mm/yr. Also the coefficient of friction of the unplated sample varies between 0 and 0.08 while for the plated samples the coefficient of friction was relatively lesser and ranged from 0 to 0.02. Significant improvement in corrosion resistance was also indicated by a positive shift in potential. Sliding wear analysis demonstrates consistently enhanced wear resistance of the ternary deposits as well as the binary deposits, with the ternary Sn addition showing better resistance to wear. This work has established that Ni-Sn-P electroless coating of mild steel can be used to improve the corrosion and wear resistance for engineering applications.