Ramesh Chandra Agarwala

Electroless alloy/composite coatings: A review

Since the inception of electroless coating by Brenner & Riddell in 1946, it has been the subject of research interest and, in the past two decades, emphasis has shifted to the studies of its properties and applications. The co-deposition of paniculate matter or substance within the growing film has led to a new generation of electroless composite coatings, many of which possess excellent wear and corrosion resistance. This valuable process can coat not only electrically conductive materials including graphite but also fabrics, insulators like plastics, rubber etc. The low coating rates with these can provide better reflectivity of plated surfaces and many more applications. Coatings can be tailored for desired properties by selecting the composition of the coating alloy/composite/metallic to suit specific requirements. The market for these coatings is expanding fast as the potential applications are on the rise. In the present article, an attempt has been made to review different electroless alloy/composite coatings with respect to bath types and their composition, properties and applications. Different characterisation studies have been conducted on various electroless nickel-based coatings with emphasis on wear and corrosion properties.

Electroless Ni‐P Based Nanocoating Technology—A Review

An advancement of electroless, (EL) Ni‐P based coatings from micro to nano level is being discussed in this present review. This paper provides a coherent understanding of the EL coatings in terms of systems, bath composition for metal/alloy and composite coatings. The elements of the EL composite bath have been discussed. The studies on the second phase nanosized particles dispersed in the Ni‐P matrix have been illustrated. The bonding mechanisms of EL coatings with the substrates have been discussed. The morphology, physical and mechanical properties of the Ni‐P‐X (X the second phase particles added into EL Ni‐P matrix) composite coatings have discussed. A few applications have also been outlined that may reveal the capabilities of the EL Ni‐P based nanocomposite coating technology to the relevant industries with the emphasis on tribological, corrosion, and magnetic behavior.

DRY SLIDING WEAR AND FRICTION BEHAVIOR OF Ni–P–ZrO2–Al2O3COMPOSITE ELECTROLESS COATINGS ON ALUMINUM

In the present study, dry sliding wear behavior of a newly developed electroless coating, prepared by in-situ co-precipitation of X and its co-deposition, has been investigated both as-coated and heat treated, at different loads on a pin-on-disc wear monitor with constant sliding speed. The cumulative volume loss for increasing sliding distance is observed to be linear and variation in wear rate has been found to increase linearly with normal load following Archards law. As-coated and heat-treated samples showed significantly better wear performance than that of the substrate aluminum (AS) in terms of the wear rate, which was also found to be influenced by substrate hardness. The friction coefficient decreases with increasing normal load for both the un-coated and coated aluminum. However, relatively higher values of friction coefficient has been observed for coated and heat-treated samples compared to that for the substrate.

Characterization of carbon fabric coated with Ni-P and Ni-P-ZrO2-Al2O3 by electroless technique

Ni-P and Ni-P-ZrO2-Al2O3 (Ni-P-X) composite coatings on carbon fiber woven fabric have been attempted by electroless (EL) coating technique. For producing Ni-P EL coating, a sodium hypophosphite is used as reducing agent in alkaline bath whereas for producing composite coating, in the same bath, the co-precipitation of Al2O3 along with ZrO2 by a chemical reaction has been used. The bath used was maintained at pH value of 9 ± 0.25 and a temperature of 90 ± 2°C for all the coatings under investigation. The morphology of coatings has been studied under SEM and the phases have been identified by XRD and TEM. The phases like microcrystalline nickel, amorphous nickel, Ni5P4 and Ni12P5 have been identified to be present. The grain size of these phases has been seen to be in the range of 5–10 nm. The tensile strength of as-coated and heat treated samples of both the types of coatings have been compared with that of uncoated fabric. The UTS values of uncoated carbon fabric used has been found to 3.7 N/mm2 whereas that for heat treated after coating the fabric samples with Ni-P and Ni-P-ZrO2-Al2O3 EL coatings have been observed to be 11.1 and 12.4 N/mm2 respectively.

Development of Radar Absorbing Nano Crystals under Thermal Irradiation

Single phase W-type barium hexaferrite nano crystals of radar absorbing material (RAM) i.e., BaMe2Fe16O27 (Me2+=Fe2+) were synthesized by a modified flux method that combines the controlled chemical co-precipitation process for nucleation and complete uniform growth during in-situ annealing with NaCl flux under vacuum furnace. Uniform structure morphological transformation of nano crystals from spherical to prism faces were noticed after annealing with increasing temperatures from 200 to 1200 oC for 4 h in vacuum. XRD results showed the single phase nanocrystals of BaFe18O27 with increasing crystallanity and size from 10 to 90 nm during annealing. FESEM and TEM were used to investigate the systematic growth processes of various morphologies of nano crystals. The effect of such systematic morphological transformation of nanocrystals was observed in dielectric, dynamic magnetic and refection loss (RL) properties in Kuband (12.4 -18.0 GHz). A significant increment from -15.23 dB to -43.65 dB with wide range of bandwidth in RL loss is noticed due to the symmetric morphological growth of single phase nano crystals of RAM during annealing. This process of crystal growth, morphology evolution and RL enhancement with respect to increasing temperature were also explained in terms of ostwald ripening and quantum size effect.

Microwave Absorption and Magnetic Studies of Strontium Hexaferrites Nanoparticles Synthesized by Modified Flux Method

M-type strontium hexaferrite nanocrystals of radar absorbing material (NRAM) i.e. SrFe12O19 were synthesized by modified flux method that combine the controlled chemical co-precipitation process for nucleation and complete uniform growth during annealing with NaCl flux. Uniform structural morphological transformation of nanocrystals from needle to hexagonal prism faces were noticed after annealing with increasing of heat treatment (HT) temperature from 800 to 1200°C for 4h. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results show the formation of various phases with increase in annealing temperature. The crystallinity and crystallite size are found to increase with increase in heat treatment temperature (15-40nm). The superparamagnetic behavior of strontium hexaferrite is confirmed by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) wherein it was noticed that magnetic field (10000 gauss max) did not have any effect on these materials. The transformation of magnetic properties i.e. from superparamagnetic to ferromagnetic behaviour after heating at various HT temperatures have been revealed by hysteresis loops under VSM study. The increase in saturation magnetization from 2.44 to 75.03 emu/gm is observed. Formation of ultrafine particles has been confirmed through field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). About 5 to10% of the needle like crystals in the ‘as synthesized’ condition were transformed to hexagonal pyramidal structure and most of the crystals are found to have plate like hexagonal structures with increase in heat treatment temperatures. The effect of such systematic morphological transformation of nanocrystals was observed in reflection loss properties in X band (8-12 GHz). The maximum reflection loss of -20.05, -24.31, -24.16, -25.22, -25.12, -24.01 dB at 8.1, 8.6, 9.2, 9.6, 10.7, and 12 GHz respectively are observed for the material heat treated at 1200°C. A significant increment from - 6.5 to -25.22 dB at 9.6 GHz in reflection loss (RL) is noticed due to symmetric morphological growth of RAM nanocrystal during annealing.

Electroless Ni—P—ferrite composite coatings for microwave applications

Electroless, EL coating technique is one of the elegant ways of coating by controlling the temperature and pH of the coating bath in which there is no usage of electric current. It is estimated that the market for this chemistry will increase at a rate of about 15% per year. Use of microwave energy for synthesis of material with novel microstructures is an exciting new field in material science with enormous application.In this investigation, nanograined BaZn2−yCoyFe16O27y = 0.0, 0.4, 0.8, 1.2, 1.6 and 2.0) powders have been synthesized by citrate precursor method followed by heat treatment at various specified temperatures like 650, 750 and 850° C for 3 h in the furnace. In addition heat treatments are also carried out in the microwave oven of the power rating of 760 W. The powders thus produced have been characterized by SEM, EPMA, VSM, XRD and thermal analysis techniques.As a forward step towards EL nano-composite coatings, Ni-P-X (X = BaZn2−y CoyFe16O27) coatings with thickness less than ∼0.1 mm thick has been produced. Such coating exhibits absorption of microwave in the range of 12–18 GHz up to about 20 db depending upon the volume fraction of the ferrite particles embedded in the Ni-P matrix

Synthesis of Nanograined Ti-Al-Cr-Nb-X [X = Ni-P-Coated Graphite and Carbon] Intermetallic Matrix Composites by Mechanical Alloying

In the present work, TiAl-based intermetallic matrix composite with second phase reinforcement as Ni-P-coated carbon and graphite powders were synthesized by mechanical alloying route. Graphite powder (20–30 µm) and elemental carbon powders (1–5 µm) were coated with Ni-P by the electroless coating technique, which was added to the elemental powder mixtures of Ti-48Al-1%Cr -1%Nb with 1% composition of either of the two. The powder mixtures were subjected to mechanical alloying at 300 rpm up to 250 h using toluene as a process control agent. The samples were collected after 25 h duration and characterized. The formation of TiAl (γ) and Ti3Al (α 2) phases are confirmed by x-ray diffraction. The formations of these phases were found after milling for 75 h in case of graphite addition and 100 h in case of carbon addition in the intermetallic matrix. The mechanically alloyed samples milled for different extents of time were examined by a field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and energy dispersive x-ray (EDAX) spectroscopy; the grain size was determined to be in the size range of 140–189 nm for the mechanically alloyed mixture.

Effect of Pressure and Temperature on Phase Transformation and Properties of Titanium Aluminide Obtained through Reaction Synthesis

Reaction synthesis process has been used to develop γ titanium aluminide using elemental powders. Powder mixture of Ti-48 at. pct Al was prepared in ball mill and reaction synthesis was carried out in hot press with varying temperature and pressure. Titanium aluminide synthesized under high pressure and temperature resulted in better properties with respect to densification, homogenization response, mechanical properties and oxidation resistance as compared to that synthesized under low pressure and temperature. Al rich phases were observed in as-synthesized condition in all the experiments. However, some Ti rich phases were also found in high pressure-temperature synthesized samples. Density, hardness and tensile strength have been correlated with applied pressure through empirical relations. Variation in density with pressure is found to be logarithmic whereas hardness and tensile strength variation with pressure is polynomial.

A Comparative Study on Process-Properties Correlation of Nano Radar Absorbing Heat Treated Materials

Single phase M-type barium hexaferrite nano radar absorbing material (NRAM) i.e., BaFe12O19 were synthesized by modified flux method that combines the controlled chemical co-precipitation process for nucleation and complete uniform growth during annealing with NaCl flux under microwave annealing (MWA) and vacuum annealing (VA). Uniform morphological transformation of nano crystals from spherical (~ 10 nm) to prism faces (~ 35 nm) were observed under TEM during annealing. The effect of such systematic nano morphological transformation of NRAM was observed on magnetic and reflection loss (RL) properties. Maximum reflection loss (RL) was improved to 37.15 dB at 16.00 GHz for MWA at 760 watt and 27.56 dB at 15.75 GHz for VA at 1200 oC with continuous increasing absorption range under −10 dB for 2 mm thick coating layer in the Ku Band (12.4-18.0 GHz).. Excellent microwave absorption properties are a consequence of accurate EM match in the nano morphological planes, a strong natural resonance, as well as multipolarization. This process of crystal growth, morphology evolution and RL enhancement with respect to the heat treatments were also explained in terms of Ostwald ripening and quantum size effect.