Elsevier

Journal of Solid State Chemistry

Volume 240, August 2016, Pages 109-114
Journal of Solid State Chemistry

Effect of electrodeposition temperature on grain orientation and corrosion resistance of nanocrystalline pure nickel

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssc.2016.05.025Get rights and content

Abstract

The nanocrystalline pure nickels with different grain orientations were fabricated by direct current electrodeposition process. The grain size slightly decreased with the increasing of electrodeposition solution temperature. However, grain orientation was affected significantly. Comparing with samples obtained at 50 °C and 80 °C, sample obtained at 20 °C had the strongest (111) orientation plane which increased electrochemical corrosion resistance of this sample. At the same time, the lowest (111) orientation plane deteriorated electrochemical corrosion resistance of sample obtained at 50 °C.

Graphical abstract

The increased electrodeposition temperature promoted slightly grain refinement. The grain orientation was affected significantly by electrodeposition solution temperature. The (111) orientation plane of sample increased significantly corrosion resistance.

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Introduction

The concept of grain refinement has been introduced to improve corrosion resistance of metal. The electrodeposited pure nickel has been used widely studied to improve corrosion resistance [1], [2]. The corrosion resistance can be affected by the microstructures, such as grain size, surface morphology and grain orientation. Electrochemical deposition of nickel films has been discussed [3]. However, the microstructures of electrodeposited pure nickel is closely related to the electrodeposited parameters, such as current density [2] electrolyte temperature [4] and additive [1], [5]. The morphology of corroded surface of electrodeposited pure nickel revealed that the pits were confined on the pyramids. Moreover, blocky morphology on the surface of the electrodeposited pure nickel was higher resistance to pitting corrosion [6]. The corrosion resistance of metal materials is closely related to the structure and thickness of the surface passive films. The passive film contains point defects. The generation and transmission of point defects affect the performance of the material [7]. The passive film formed nanocrystalline Ni thin films deposited by magnetron sputtering showed a p-type semiconductor characteristic in a pH 8.4 borate buffer solution [8]. Moreover, the passive films formed on industrial electrodeposited nickel in borate buffer solution with NaCl showed a p-type semi-conducting behavior. However, the passive films of nano-scale twins nickel showed p-type semi-conductors for the inner layer and an n-type semi-conductor behavior for the outer layer [9]. The study showed that the nickel coating with grain size of 50 nm possessed higher corrosion resistance than that with grain size of 10 nm. This abnormal behavior may be related to the existence of nanoscale twins which induced lower acceptor concentration in the passive films [10]. Moreover, the profound texture effect on the corrosion resistance was related to surface energy scales [11]. The surface energy quantity for face centered cubic (FCC) metal was (111)<(001)<(110) [12]. The samples with the (111) plane parallel to the surface for FCC metals were found to offer the highest corrosion resistance. Sample with the highest atomic density planes parallel to the surface was found to offer the highest corrosion resistance for commercial pure titanium, regardless of its grain size [13]. It has been shown that crystallographic planes with higher atomic density exhibit higher resistance to corrosion for 316LVM stainless steel [14] and aluminum single crystals [15].

However, the effect of grain orientation of nanocrystalline pure nickel on its corrosion resistance was rarely reported. Therefore, an attempt has been made in the present paper to study the effect of grain orientation on corrosion resistance of nanocrystalline pure nickel by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS).

Section snippets

Experimental

The nanocrystalline pure nickel was prepared by direct current electrodeposition from an electrolyte containing nickel sulfate (300 g/L), nickel chloride (45 g/L), boric acid (about 45 g/L) and saccharin (about 5 g/L) at 20 °C, 50 °C and 80 °C, respectively. The sample obtained at 20 °C, 50 °C and 80 °C was designated as A, B and C, respectively. High sensitive power source (ZH4231 DC power analyser) was used for electrodeposition. A two-electrode cell system was used for the deposition. The anode was

Results and discussion

Fig. 1a–c shows the SEM images of A, B and C nanocrystalline pure nickels. The electrodeposited nanocrystalline samples shows a relatively large surface roughness. The compact surface is consisting of aggregated fine granules. The main chemical component is nickel in electrodeposited nanocrystalline samples in Fig. 1a′, b′ and c′. A small amount of carbon and oxygen are formed in the process of transport and storage.

The nanocrystalline pure nickel obtained at 20 °C expands along a preferred

Conclusions

The effect of grain orientation on corrosion resistance of nanocrystalline pure nickel was investigated in the present study. The main conclusions were as follows:

  • (1)

    The grain size slightly decreased due to increasing of electrodeposition solution temperature.

  • (2)

    The grain orientation of the nanocrystalline pure nickel was affected significantly by electrodeposition solution temperature.

  • (3)

    The (111) orientation plane of nanocrystalline pure nickels increased significantly corrosion resistance, regardless

Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 91326203 and Grant No. 21271114).

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