Investigation of electro-thermal property of Cu-MWCNT-coated 316L stainless steel

ABSTRACT

Stainless steel is a material with high toughness, high ductility and easy formability but it suffers from low electrical and thermal conductivity. In this paper, an attempt has been made for deposition of copper-based multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) composite coatings on the surface of stainless steel plate by the direct current electrodeposition method to enhance the electrical and thermal properties. Cetyl tri-methyl ammonium bromide, a cationic dispersing agent, is applied in the electrolytic bath to prevent aggregation of carbon nanotubes. The microstructure and compositional analysis of the developed Cu-MWCNT coating were investigated by scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The electrical conductivity of Cu-MWCNT composite-coated stainless-steel specimen is found to be 183% greater than the uncoated stainless-steel specimen and 58% high compared with the copper-coated stainless steel specimen. Thermal conductivity of Cu-MWCNT composite-coated stainless-steel specimen also improved compared with copper-coated and uncoated stainless-steel.

KEYWORDS:

• Stainless steel
• multi-wall carbon nanotube
• electro-deposition
• SEM
• EDS
• electrical conductivity
• thermal conductivity

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful and acknowledges the support of technical staffs of Non-traditional machining Lab, Mechanical Engineering Department of IIEST, Shibpur, Howrah. The authors are also grateful to reviewers for their comments and suggestions in improving the quality of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.