AN INVESTIGATION ON EFFECTS OF TiO2 NANO-PARTICLES INCORPORATED IN ELECTROLESS NiP COATINGS' PROPERTIES

Electroless composite coatings have been vastly used in various industries during last decades due to their good properties, such as corrosion and wear resistance, hardness and uniform thickness. In this paper, co-deposition of TiO2 nano-particles with Nickel-Phosphorus electroless coatings on API-5L-X65 steel substrates was investigated. Surface morphology and composition of coatings were studied via SEM and EDX, respectively. XRD analyses showed that these coatings had amorphous structure with TiO2 crystalline particles. TiO2 nano-particles increased microhardness of coatings. Corrosion resistance of these coatings was tested using linear polarization in 0.5M sulfuric acid electrolyte. Results showed that NiP-TiO2 electroless composite coatings increased corrosion resistance of substrates.