Compatibility of fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces and addition of inhibitors in designing corrosion prevention strategies for electrodeposited nickel in saline solutions

Effect of Substrate Grain Size on Structural and Corrosion Properties of Electrodeposited Nickel Layer Protected with Self-Assembled Film of Stearic Acid

“…To assess whether the change of the grain size of the copper substrate affected the crystalline structure of the electrodeposited film, we performed XRD measurements on the electrodeposited Ni on Samples D12 and D25. The thickness of the electrodeposited nickel films on both samples was measured with combined SEM cross-section and elemental-line-profile analyses using energy-dispersive spectroscopy as described elsewhere [8]. The obtained film thickness for the electrodeposited Ni layers in this study was approximately 4-6 µm, consistent with our previous studies [37].…”

“…From the high CA values observed on functionalized electrodeposited Ni films on Samples D12 and D25, it could be expected that the functionalized samples exhibited better corrosion-resistance properties compared to their nonfunctionalized counterpart when exposed to a corrosive medium. However, as we recently reported, the CA alone cannot be considered as a measure for the corrosion-protection efficiency of a hybrid substrate [8]. As demonstrated in Figure 4, the CAs of the functionalized and nonfunctionalized samples are shown to be very different.…”

“…In this figure, the equivalent circuit models were superimposed on schematic representations of sample-surface constituents, and the obtained corresponding fitting parameters are provided in Table 1. The equivalent circuit models were chosen on the basis of the presence of different surface constituents (e.g., micro-/nanostructured surface, oxide layer, SA molecules, and air pockets) and in accordance with our previous studies on similar systems [8]. Surfaces of the functionalized samples are considered as dynamic systems and undergo changes after immersion in corrosive electrolytes.…”

“…Hierarchical micro-/nanostructured materials with various shapes and properties are widely used in different applications like as optical materials [1], low adhesive surfaces [2], abrasion-resistant surfaces, anti-icing films [3][4][5][6], anticorrosion coatings [7][8][9], and in the fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces [10,11]. The superhydrophobicity phenomenon was first observed in lotus leaves in nature [12,13], and it is frequently used to describe surface properties with a water contact angle (CA) larger than 150 • and sliding angle less than 10 • [14,15].…”

“…The superhydrophobicity phenomenon was first observed in lotus leaves in nature [12,13], and it is frequently used to describe surface properties with a water contact angle (CA) larger than 150 • and sliding angle less than 10 • [14,15]. The fabrication of hierarchical structures for tuning surface hydrophobicity has been demonstrated for various metals, including aluminum [16], zinc [17], and nickel [8], among which nickel is especially attractive because of its high corrosion resistance, attractive visual appearance, and reasonable hardness [18]. Numerous methods, including electrodeposition [7,10], chemical-vapor deposition [19], etching [20], electrospinning [21], and sol-gel [1] have been used so far for the fabrication of nickel films that are decorated with micro-/nanostructures.…”