Deposition and corrosion resistance of electroless Ni-PCTFE-P nanocomposite coatings

The present work deals with the process of electroless deposition and electrochemical corrosion behavior of nickel-polychlorotrifluoroethylene-phosphorous (Ni-PCTFE-P) nanocomposite coatings. The process of autocatalytic-catalytic reduction of Ni in nickel sulfate and sodium hypophosphate solution with PCTFE suspended particles has been employed for the formation of the electroless Ni-PCTFE-P composite coatings. Surface morphology and composition of the composite coatings are characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) measurements and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Corrosion behavior of coatings is evaluated using open-circuit potential (E_OCP) measurements, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and polarization techniques in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution. The study reveals significant shift in corrosion potential towards the noble direction, decrease in corrosion current density, increase in charge transfer resistance and decrease in double‐layer capacitance values with the incorporation of PCTFE particles in the Ni-P matrix. The significant improvement in corrosion resistance observed for Ni-PCTFE-P nanocomposite coatings (25.3 kΩ cm²) compared to Ni-P (16 kΩ cm²) could have resulted from the microstructural differences of pure Ni-P with Ni-PCTFE-P nanocomposite coatings.