Effect of heat treatment on age hardening behaviour of electroless nickel–phosphorus coatings

Abstract

Electroless nickel–phosphorus (EN) coatings have been widely used in various industries such as oil, gas, electronic, chemical, automotive, aerospace, and mining. The EN coating process is based on a redox reaction in which a reducing agent is oxidised and Ni²⁺ ions are reduced on the substrate materials. Once the first layer of Ni is deposited, it acts as a catalyst for the process. Consequently, a linear relation between coating thickness and time usually occurs. If the reducing agent is sodium hypophosphite, the deposit obtained will be a nickel–phosphorus alloy. Also, the actual nickel and phosphorous levels in the EN deposit depend on the composition, temperature, and pH of the plating bath used. In this work, three types of EN coatings have been studied: low, medium, and high phosphorus Ni–P alloys. The techniques used were: differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), SEM, and hardness measurements. Heat treatment resulted in precipitation of nickel phosphides, e.g. Ni₃P, and nickel crystallites. Thus, the phosphorus content of the coating was reduced. The results of isochronal age hardening showed that the peak age hardening temperature for the three EN coatings occurred at ∼673 K. However, the time to reach peak hardness during isothermal heat treatment at 593 K varied with phosphorus content. Also, it was found that the temperatures at which peak precipitation reactions occur during DSC scan are influenced by phosphorus content.