The evolution of growth morphology and corrosion behavior of electrodeposited Ni–P coatings on alumina borate whisker‐reinforced pure aluminum composite

The Ni–P alloy coatings were obtained on alumina borate whisker‐reinforced pure aluminum composite by electro‐deposition. The initial electro‐deposition behavior of the Ni–P alloys on the composite and pure aluminum was studied, respectively. It was found that the composition and the morphology of materials had a distinct effect on the initial electro‐deposition behavior of the Ni–P alloys. The Ni–P alloy coatings preferred to nucleate at the composite as compared with the pure aluminum. Moreover, the Ni–P particles were prone to deposit at the whisker/Al interface in the composite. The Ni–P coatings were barely depositing upon the surface of whisker during the plating process. As the deposition time increased, the Ni–P particles that were deposited on the surface of the composite grew gradually. These Ni–P particles linked to each other and eventually covered the whisker surface. Moreover, it can be found that the surfaces of the composite were gradually covered by Ni–P coatings and the anticorrosion performance of the coated composite increased remarkably with the increase in the deposition time. When the deposition time is 60 min, only the Ni–P diffraction peak could be detected. In this case, the coated composite had significantly better corrosion resistant, which is attributed to the surface of composite was perfectly covered by the Ni–P coatings. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.