Electroless deposition of SiC Nano Coating on Aluminium alloy and evaluation of wear resistance and electroless characteristics K. Parthiban a , Poovazhagan Lakshmanan b,⇑ , Sarangapani Palani b , Arun Arumugam c a Mechanical Engineering, A.K.T Memorial College Of Engineering and Technology, Kallakurichi, Tamilnadu, India b Mechanical Engineering, Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar (SSN) College of Engineering, Kalavakkam, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India c Mechanical Engineering, I.F.E.T College Of Engineering, Villupuram, Tamilnadu, India article info Article history: Available online 19 February 2021 Keywords: Electroless nano-coating Aluminium alloy LM6 Compositecoating Nickel SiC abstract Electroless Nickel (ENi-P) and silicon carbide (SiC) is the major evolving surface coating technique employed in industries today. Many physical characteristics of EN coatings such as hardness, coating uni- formity, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance makes this coating as a decision for many engineering applications. The major advantages of ENi-P coatings are uniform coating thickness, improved wear and hardness, ability to deposit on surface activated non-conductors etc. Typical anionic surfactant and var- ious passive chemical additives and nano additives such as SiC were added to the EN bath. The coating was carried out on Aluminium alloy LM6. In this paper, Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS) surfactants along with nano additives such as SiC were added to the EN bath. The effect of surfactant along with nano addi- tives on surface properties such as wear properties, microhardness and microstructure of electroless nickel-phosphorus and silicon carbide coating was investigated. The microhardness was measured using Vickers hardness tester, the microstructure was examined by using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and wear test was measured using Pin on disc machine. The result obtained from the above tests clearly indicates that the surfactant and passive additives improve the microhardness, microstructure and wear rate of ENi-P and SiC coatings significantly. Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 28th International Con- ference on Processing and Fabrication of Advanced Materials. 1. Introduction The distinct properties of the aluminium alloy LM6 are high specific strength, corrosion resistance, thermal conductivity and low density, which make it highly suitable for commonly used automotive and aerospace applications. However, the resistance to abrasion is not maintained [1]. In addition, the formation of an aluminium oxide layer results in localized corrosion.[2]. For the development of a protective coating, various coating methods such as electroless [3], physical vapor deposition (PVD) [6], different plasma techniques [5] and thermal spray [4] were used. In partic- ular, on substrates with complex shapes, electroless deposition creates a uniform coating[7]. Correspondingly, the properties of Ni-P electroless coating [8] have been strengthened by co- deposition of nano-particles as well as oxides, carbides or nitrides with metals. By using strong nanoparticles, like Ni-P/SiC, Al 2 O 3 , TiO 2 , SiO 2 etc., a lot of composite coating literature has been used to improve the abrasion resistance [9–12] For lubricant applica- tions, soft nano-particles such as PTFE, MoS 2 and BN(h) [13–15] may be the second step of the material. In this respect, SiC nanoparticles have the benefit of high corrosion resistance and hardness. Then again, SiC is embedded in the metal matrix to present anti-wear properties [16–19]. This work targets adding SiC nanoparticles to the Nickel-Phosphorus bath and Electroless coating of Ni-P- SiC nanocomposite on the aluminium LM6. Then investigate the coating properties like phase compositions, microhardness and microstructure of the electroless nickel coating co-deposited with hard particles SiC on to the aluminium LM6 (Table 1). 2. Experimental details 2.1. Substrate preparation and bath composition The electroless deposition process was employed for Ni-P coat- ings deposition through a chemical reaction. Substrate material chosen for coating is aluminium alloy LM6. Al alloy is turned to https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2021.01.442 2214-7853/Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 28th International Conference on Processing and Fabrication of Advanced Materials. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: poovazhaganl@ssn.edu.in (P. Lakshmanan). Materials Today: Proceedings 46 (2021) 1096–1100 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Today: Proceedings journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr