Formation of spinel from Fe-Ni coating electrodeposited on AISI 430 ferritic stainless steel

Ferritic stainless steels exhibit properties, such as good electrical conductivity, good corrosion resistance and low cost, that are beneficial for their application as interconnects in intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells (ITSOFC) that function at temperatures between 600 degrees C and 800 degrees C. However, the stainless steel corrosion resistance is attributed to the amount of Cr, which is an element that forms a chromium oxide (Cr2O3) layer, acts as an oxidation protective barrier at high temperatures, and reduces the interconnector performance due to its low electrical conductivity. In this context, the objective of this work was to obtain spinel coatings from the Fe and Ni metallic alloy thermal conversion on AISI stainless steel 430 substrate produced by electrodeposition. The morphology and microstructure of the spinel films deposited on stainless steel were characterized by SEM, EDS, XRD and adherence analysis. The results obtained showed that the films were adherent, dense and continuous along the AISI stainless steel 430 substrate surface. In addition, the heat treatment procedure effectively produced crystalline spinels ((NiFe)(3)O-4).