Electrochemical and hydrogen embrittlement of a micro-alloy steel coated with nanocrystalline nickel by pulse electrodeposition

ABSTRACT

A fine-grain micro-alloy (MA) steel coated with nanocrystalline (NC) nickel by pulse electrodeposition (PED) has been studied by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in a 3.5 wt. % NaCl solution and shown to have improved corrosion resistance. Hydrogen embrittlement (HE), assessed by a slow strain rate test (SSRT) at a strain rate of 2 × 10⁻⁶s⁻¹, showed that the uncoated MA steel is highly susceptible to HE, whereas the NC Ni coated steel is resistance to HE. Fractographs have revealed characteristic brittle and ductile fracture features for the MA and NC Ni coated steels, respectively.

KEYWORDS:

• Electrodeposition
• HRTEM
• hydrogen in metals
• nanoparticles
• nickel-coated steel

Acknowledgements

Authors would like to acknowledge M/s Tata Steel, Jamshedpur, India for providing the micro-alloy steel.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).