Electroless nickel metallization to prepare SiO2–Ni composite particles via polyelectrolytes route

Influence of SiO 2 nanoparticles on hardness and corrosion resistance of electroless Ni–P coatings

“…From AFM examination, the average surface roughness values (R a ) are found to decrease from 1.3 µm for the pure Ni-P coating to 45 nm for the Ni-P-SiO 2 nanocoatings, underlying the important role of nanoparticles towards modification of deposit morphology. Beside codeposition of nanoparticles on the coating front, surface modification of the nanoparticles present in colloidal state may also M A N U S C R I P T ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 6 occur through surface activation and subsequent deposition by Ni-P deposit [26][27][28][29]. For small SiO 2 loading levels as in this work, it is anticipated that nanoparticle codeposition occurs uniformly over the coating.…”