Dry sliding wear mechanisms of Ce in aluminum bronze coatings

Abstract

A new type of cerium bronze coatings with aluminum as the main compound and over the solubility limit were successfully fabricated on a mild steel substrate by plasma spraying system. Scanning electron microscopy analysis showed that Ce refined the microstructure effectively, which resulted in an increase in average hardness. Ce stimulated the Fe element diffusion from the substrate to coating which resulted in the evolution of Fe-containing intermetallics from the FeAl (κ 2 phase) to Fe 3 Al (κ 1 phase). This study also shows that a small amount of Ce (0.1\xa0wt%) added into the novel aluminum bronze coating can improve the abrasive wear resistance by refining the microstructure and increasing the hardness of the coating, where the excess Ce (0.6\xa0wt%) addition will reduce the abrasive wear resistance of the coating.