Corrosion protection of electroplated nickel using silane coupling agent

Abstract

Electroplated nickel was chemically modified using an aminosilane coupling agent (as an alternative to chromate) in order to improve its corrosion performance. Infrared spectroscopy revealed that the silane bonded to the metal satisfactorily. The corrosion behaviour of a nickel electroplated steel workpiece was investigated using potentiodynamic polarisation and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy to optimise the silane deposition conditions. These data confirm that the most effective conditions are dipping in the silane coupling agent solution for 30 s and then curing at 100°C for 40 min.

Keywords:

• Corrosion resistance
• Silane coupling agent
• Coating
• Electroplated nickel

We would like to thank the financial support from the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (grant no. 20110162120070), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (grant no. 201012200146) and the Planned Science and Technology Project of Hunan Province (grant no. 2011FJ3175).