Investigation on the evolution of microstructure and texture of electroplated Ni–Ti composite coating by Rietveld method

Abstract Rietveld refinement was utilized to investigate the evolution of microstructure and texture of the Ni–Ti composite coatings electroplated at different applied current densities. Scanning Electron Microscope and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy were utilized to investigate the morphology and chemical composition of the coatings. Relative texture coefficients (RTC) and measured pole figures were utilized to investigate the texture evolution of the coatings. The results showed that the surface morphology of the coatings changed from a colonial structure to a polyhedral one. And the incorporated Ti content decreased with increasing applied current density. As the applied current density increased, the crystallite sizes increased and their distribution got less uniform, and the microstrain and dislocation density decreased. The results of simulated pole figures obtained from Rietveld refinement illustrated that the texture of the coatings changed from no obvious texture to a strong [2 0 0] fiber texture with increasing applied current density. The texture evolution obtained from simulated pole figures was confirmed by the result of RTC and the measured pole figures. The evolutions of the microstructure and texture were derived from the change of the applied current density and incorporated Ti content in the Ni–Ti composite coatings.