Synthesis and tribological behavior of Ni-P-CNT composite coating

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have super-strong mechanical characteristics and unique hollow nanotube structure and were believed as ideal materials for fabricating the excellent composites. In this study, Ni-P-CNT composite coating was successfully deposited on the surface of copper by electroless plating. Hardness of composite coating was compared with Ni-P coating, before and after heat treatment. The x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, EDS analysis and the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize coatings. Wear behavior of coatings were investigated using a pin-on-disk test rig and friction coefficient were reported. Results showed that incorporation of CNT in coating result in increasing of wear resistance and decreasing of friction coefficient to 7 and 2 times, respectively. Improvement of Ni-P-CNT tribological behavior could attributed to strong mechanical characteristics and unique topological structure of nanotubes.