Effect of Heat Treatment on the Structure of Ni-P Electrocoatings
Activity of electrode material is strongly dependent on the structure, therefore, amorphous Ni-P electrocoatings deposited from a Watts type bath on the carbon steel substrate, were subjected to thermal activation through their isothermal heating under argon protective atmosphere at the temperature of 400, 500 and 800°C. After such a heat treatment, the investigations of the structure change of the Ni-P electrocoatings were carried out using X-ray qualitative phase analysis, which revealed the effect of thermal activation on the phase composition of the obtained coatings. It was found that after each applied thermal activation, the occurence of diphase system in the coating was observed which was consisted of nickel crystallites and nickel phosphide crystallites of the type Ni5P2.