Composite Ni–Co–fly ash coatings on 5083 aluminium alloy

Ni–Co–fly ash coatings were deposited on zincate treated 5083 wrought aluminium alloy substrates with the aid of the electrodeposition technique. Structural and chemical characterization of the produced composite coatings was performed with the aid of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron dispersive X-ray analysis (EDS) techniques. The Ni–Co–fly ash coatings were found to consist of a crystalline Ni–Co solid solution with dispersed fly ash particles. In addition, chemical analysis of the Ni–Co matrix showed that it consisted of 80 wt.% Ni and 20 wt.% Co. The co-deposition of fly ash particles leads to a significant increase of the microhardness of the coating. The corrosion behaviour of the Ni–Co–fly ash/zincate coated aluminium alloy, in a 0.3 M NaCl solution (pH = 3.5), was studied by means of potentiodynamic corrosion experiments.