Wear and Corrosion Resistance of Electroless Nickel-Boron Coated Mild Steel

Nickel-boron coatings were synthesized on mild steel by the electroless deposition method. Some of the coatings were submitted to a hardening heat treatment at 400°C during 1 hour in an atmosphere containing 95% Ar and 5% H2. Uncoated steel, treated and untreated samples were submitted to the Taber abrasion test to assess their wear resistance. The wear track was then examined by SEM and roughness measurement. The Taber Wear Index of untreated samples was slightly better than that of steel but heat treated samples attained TWI as small as 13. The corrosion resistance of the samples was investigated by the way of polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and the influence of the heat treatment was observed.