Deposition of Cu-based composite coatings on mild steel substrate via electrodeposition method

• Main Authors: Priyadarshi, Piyush, Yadav, Ankush, Maurya, Rita
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carbonaceous Materials; DC Powers; EDS; Electrodeposition; Microhardness; SEM
• ISSN: 2214-7853; 2214-7853
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matpr.2022.04.648

The mild steel (MS) is a commonly used material in various structural industries due to its low cost and good strength (relatively lower than other processed steel). But, poor corrosion resistance, relatively low hardness, and wear resistance lead to a limit of its application. To enhance these properties, surface engineering with coating are preferred. The present article investigates the synthesis, microstructural and mechanical properties of copper-based electrodeposited coatings on the mild steel. The direct current (DC) power source is used to deposit the pure copper and copper-based composite reinforced with carbonaceous materials, such as graphene (Gr), graphite (Gt), and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The coatings were deposited using two types of bath containing reinforcement, non-cyanide alkaline glycerol complex and acidic (sulphuric acid) bath. Various deposition parameters, such as bath temperature, time, current density, pH, and stirring of electrolyte were used to get an optimised uniform coating. The wetting agent was added with carbonaceous particles to make it mix and distribute uniform in the electrolyte. The cube-shaped morphology of copper crystals was witnessed in the electrodeposited coatings along with the plate-like structures of graphene and graphite. The morphology and chemical composition of the deposited coatings were analysed with the help of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) respectively. The microhardness and elastic modulus of the electrodeposited coatings were measured using instrumented microindentation test. Among the composite coatings, copper/graphite (Cu/Gt-MS) coating showed the superior hardness of ∼ 5 GPa, due to the uniform distribution of reinforcement.