An effective strategy for improving the performance of electrodeposited Fe-W alloy plating: Tailoring microstructure by graphene incorporation

Abstract

Despite the excellent performance of hard Cr plating using hexavalent chromium (Cr6+), its use is being restricted owing to recent environmental regulations. Electrodeposited Fe-W alloy is considered a possible alternative, but its high coefficient of friction (COF), high wear rate owing to tribo-oxidation, and high corrosion rate hinder its practical application. In this study, we attempted to solve these problems by modifying the microstructure of Fe-W alloy by incorporating 2D-structured graphene. The effect of graphene incorporation on the structure of the Fe-W alloy and its properties, especially microhardness, wear, and corrosion resistance, were investigated. The results showed the graphene effectively modified the columnar structure of the Fe-W alloy by inhibiting the vertical growth of clusters during electrodeposition, leading to fragmentation of the vertical cluster boundaries. This improved the hardness by as much as 17 % up to 9.1 GPa, and the corrosion resistance by changing the corrosion mechanism from localized corrosion to uniform corrosion. In addition, the graphene reduced the COF and wear rate by reducing the Fe2O3 formed by tribo-oxidation to a lower oxidation state. The structural modification of the plating by graphene incorporation thus provides an effective solution to improving the performance of Fe-W alloys.

Keywords

• Fe-W alloy
• Graphene composite
• Plating structure
• Microstructure
• Corrosion resistance