Influence of Ni content on electrochemical corrosion and tribological behavior of Cu-10Sn coatings by laser cladding

In this work, Cu-10Sn-xNi (x = 0, 3, 6, 9, and 12 wt%) alloy coatings were prepared using laser cladding technology. The influence of Ni content on the phase composition, microstructure, crystallographic characteristics, microhardness, electrochemical corrosion, dry sliding wear and corrosive wear behavior of the coatings were studied. The results indicated that the coatings formed good metallurgical bond with the substrate. The coatings were composed primarily of the alpha-Cu matrix and small gamma precipitates. The Ni element effectively reduced component segregation, and with the increased of Ni content, the grain size in the coating was significantly refined, resulting in fine equiaxed grains. Under the effect of fine grain strengthening, the Cu-10Sn-12Ni (C12NS) coating achieved a higher microhardness of approximately 222.9 +/- 5.3 HV0.2. In the electrochemical corrosion test, the increased in the number of grain boundaries significantly reduced the corrosion resistance of the Cu-10Sn-xNi coatings. The Cu-10Sn-6Ni (C6NS) coating exhibited excellent corrosion resistance, with an I-corr of only 1.37 mu A/cm(2). The results of the dry sliding wear test showed that under the influence of the hardness gradient between the hard precipitate phase and the soft matrix of the coating, the C6NS coating achieved satisfactory wear resistance with a specific wear rate of 3.30 x 10(4) mu m(3)/Nm. Meanwhile, due to the good corrosive resistance, the C6NS coating showed the best tribological performance in 3.5 wt% NaCl environment, and the specific wear rate was 1.58 x 10(4) mu m(3)/Nm.