Potential of Composite Incorporation on the Mechanical Behavior of Multilayer Coatings

In this paper, the performance of a composite particle for the deposition of ZnO/Cr2O3 on a zinc electrolyte was examined. Its susceptibility to corrosion in 3.5% NaCl, using linear polarization, was investigated. The developed crystal was characterized by using scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The strengthening properties of the coated samples, i.e. the mechanical response, were studied using a high sensitive diamond microhardness indenter and a MTR-300 rigid wear tester. From the results, the effect of the composite coatings interestingly influenced the performance regarding microhardness, durability, corrosion mitigation and wear damage. In general, the micro-hardness value for the Zn-ZnO material was 125.0 HVN, while it was 130.5 HVN for Zn-8ZnO-16Cr2O3 composite coating. For Zn-8ZnO-20Cr2O3, a better hardness performance was noted with 138.0 HVN. From the wear study, Zn-8ZnO shows 0.018 g/min dissociation against the counter body with the best wear performance obtained at 0.005 g/min. The corrosion properties of the developed composite coating also tend towards a more positive region, with a corrosion rate of 0.850 mm/yr. This shows that the role of composite particulates maximally contributes to improve the strengthening characteristics of the developed coating.