Excellent Properties of Ni-15 wt.% W Alloy Electrodeposited from a Low-Temperature Pyrophosphate System

Abstract

Electrodeposited Ni-W alloy coatings are considered to be one of the most suitable candidate coatings to replace carcinogenic hexavalent chromium coatings. In this work, Ni-W alloys are electrodeposited from pyrophosphate baths containing different concentrations of Na2WO4 2H2O (CW) at 40 °C. Both CW and the applied current density can affect the W content in the coatings. The effect of CW becomes weaker with the increased current density. The Ni-W alloys with 15 ± 5 wt.% W (Ni-15 wt.% W) are obtained from the bath containing 40 g L−1 CW at a high current of 8 A dm−2. The microhardness, corrosion resistance and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are measured with a microhardness tester and an electrochemical workstation. The modified properties are studied by heat treatment from 200 to 700 °C. The highest microhardness of 895.62 HV and the better HER property is presented after heat treatment at 400 °C, while the best corrosion resistance in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution appears at 600 °C.