Young´s modulus and fatigue lifetime improvements by diamond size effect on electroplated Ni-diamond nanocomposite

Fatigue and Young´s modulus characterizations have been investigated using the bending-test method on microsized cantilever-beam specimens made of electroplated Ni and Ni-diamond nanocomposites with different particle sizes (i.e. 350 nm and 50 nm in diameter). The experimental results show that electroplated Ni-diamond nanocomposite has slightly smaller fatigue strength than that of pure electroplated Ni due to the ductility reduction resulted by the nano-diamond particles. However, once the incorporated particle size of nano-diamond is reduced from 350 nm to 50 nm, it has been found that the electroplated Ni-diamond nanocomposite can have higher Young´s modulus (13.6% enhancement, i.e. 178GPa) and comparable fatigue strength (~2.4 GPa) with that of pure electroplated Ni.