Graphene-Reinforced Zn–Ni Alloy Composite Coating on Iron Substrates by Pulsed Reverse Electrodeposition and Its High Corrosion Resistance

Abstract

In this paper, a novel kind of graphene (Gr)-reinforced Zn–Ni alloy composite coating is successfully prepared on an iron substrate by pulsed reverse electrodeposition. Hydrophilic graphene oxide (GO) is directly added to the electrolyte and reduced to Gr during coating. The experimental results reveal that (1) there is an optimal adding amount (about 0.4 g/L) of GO in the electrolyte for achieving the highest mechanical properties and corrosion resistance; (2) the composite coating shows grain refinement and a dense microstructure due to heterogeneous nucleation sites provided from the Gr sheets during electrodeposition; and (3) compared to the regular Zn–Ni coating, the composite coating exhibits many enhancements, including hardness increase by 2.3 times, elastic modulus increase by 39%, and corrosion rate decrease from 37.66 to 1.30 mils/annum. This process has advantages such as being simple, effective, well repeatable, economical, and supporting large-scale production and is expected to be widely applied in electronics, automobiles, marine engineering, and military industries.

Multifunctional rGO–ZnO Composite Coatings with Enhanced Mechanical, Anticorrosion, and Antibacterial Characteristics for Practical Applications

“…53 Moreover, hybridizing rGO with ZnO imparts enhancement in the dispersibility, and the enhancement in nucleation sites by rGO incorporation further results in the formation of coating with refined grain size and a compact microstructure. 54 The cross-sectional SEM study also confirms the formation of minimum pores and cracks in the 0.3 wt %-RGZ coating. However, the presence of agglomerated rGO− ZnO nanoparticles in 0.5 wt %-RGZ coating results in nonuniform dispersion and thereby reduces the coating hardness.…”

“…The inherent ability of rGO to strengthen ceramics by improved physical adsorption that causes better particle–particle interaction is utilized in fabricating the hard coating . Moreover, hybridizing rGO with ZnO imparts enhancement in the dispersibility, and the enhancement in nucleation sites by rGO incorporation further results in the formation of coating with refined grain size and a compact microstructure . The cross-sectional SEM study also confirms the formation of minimum pores and cracks in the 0.3 wt %-RGZ coating.…”

Electrodeposited Zn-Ni-sisal Nanocrystals Composite Coatings - Morphology, Structure and Corrosion Resistance

“…It is possible that the incorporation of the nanocrystals in the coating results in a decrease in the active surface in contact with the corrosive solution, thus increasing the corrosion resistance of the coating 15 . As suggested in relation to the incorporation of graphene oxide 69 and silica nanoparticles 70 , it is also possible that the incorporation of nanocrystals hinders the diffusion of oxygen, thus inhibiting the reduction reaction with the consequent increase in corrosion resistance. By presenting a low level of electrical conductivity, it is also possible that nanocrystals, when uniformly dispersed in the coating, cause an increase in the resistance to current flow, in addition to promoting the distract of this current flow 44,71 .…”

Investigation on tribological behaviour of co-deposited zinc, tungsten and graphene (ZnWG) nanocomposite coatings on low-carbon steel

“…These coatings involve the combination of different materials such as zinc, nickel, cobalt, tungsten, tin, graphene, CNT and many more to leverage their advantageous properties and create synergistic effects like enhancing the corrosion and wear resistance of the nanocomposite coatings. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Zinc, tungsten and graphene are among the materials that have gained significant attention for this purpose. Excellent corrosion resistance properties are known for zinc.…”