Abs. 119, 205th Meeting, 2004 The Electrochemical Society, Inc.

Investigation of the Corrosion Behavior of

Electroless Nickel Coatings in Basic Solutions
Nazila Dadvand1, William Caly and Georges Kiporous
Mining and Metallurgical Engineering Department, Dalhousie
University, 1360 Barrington Street, Halifax (NS) B3J 2X2,
Canada

Figure 1 shows XRD spectra for EN-B coated samples

with different heat treatment durations. It can be seen that
by increasing the heat treatment time at 220 oC, more
peaks of Ni3B appears and the transition from amorphous
to crystalline states occurs. This may explain the decrease
in corrosion resistance with an increase in heat treatment
time.
(a)

Now at: National Research Council Canada

Industrial Materials Institute, 75 de Mortagne Blvd.
Boucherville (QC) J4B 6Y4, Canada

Electroless nickel (EN) is a barrier coating which protects a

substrate by preventing contact of the alloy with the
environment. The corrosion resistance of the coating is
excellent and in many environments is better than that of
traditional nickel or chromium alloys. This level of
corrosion resistance can be explained by the amorphous and
passive nature of EN. For example, the corrosion resistance
of amorphous alloys is better than for equivalent
polycrystalline materials, both because there are no grain or
phase boundaries and because of the glassy surface films
which form [1,2].

(b)

EN plating produces a Ni-P or Ni-B or pure nickel deposits

depending on whether sodium hypophosphite or dimethyl
amine borane / borohydride or hydrazine hydrate
respectively are used as the chemical reducing agent.
The corrosion behavior of electroless nickel phosphorous
(EN-P) coatings with phosphorous (P) contents ranging
from 2 to 12.5 w% was investigated using potentiodynamic
and cyclic voltammetry techniques in 0.5 M sodium
hydroxide.
It was found that although the corrosion resistance of EN-P
coatings generally increased with an increase in P content
the trend was observed only for samples where the
difference in the P content was large. For example, a very
low P EN coating (2 w%) was more resistant in alkaline
solution than two medium P (6.5, 8 w%) samples, and these
in turn were more resistant than the high P (12.5 w% P)
coated samples. However, when comparing the 6.5 and 8
w% samples the higher P content showed more resistance.
This behavior may be explained in terms of the two
counteracting effects, activating and inhibiting of
phosphorous on corrosion resistance. The activating effect
is due to the lower protectiveness of the passivating film
because of its lower thickness. As the P content increases,
the inhibiting effect increases as a result of phosphate
formation.
The corrosion behavior of electroless nickel-boron (EN-B)
coatings with boron content of 6 w% was also investigated
using a potentiodynamic technique in 0.5 M sodium
hydroxide, and the results were compared with those of a
EN-P coating with P content of 6 w%. Comparison
between potentiodynamic polarization behaviors of EN-B
coated sample with that of EN-P coated sample showed less
corrosion resistance of EN-B.
As well, the effect of heat treatment on the corrosion
resistance of the EN-B coating was investigated. X-ray
diffraction (XRD) spectra were taken from various Ni-B
coatings on the brass substrate with various heat treatment
duration conditions.

Fig. 1 XRD spectra of various Ni-B coatings at 220 oC:

(a) 5 h heat treatment, (b) 48 h heat treatment
Acknowledgements: The authors wish to acknowledge
financial assistance from the Natural Science and
Engineering Research Council of Canada.
.
[1] R. L. Zeller and L. Salvati, Corrosion Science,
50(1994)457.
[2] Y. Z. Zhang, and M. Yao, Trans IMF, 77(1999)78.