Mechanical and Morphological Characteristics of Nickel, Chromium and Nitride-Based Coatings Formed via Electrodeposition and Magnetron Sputtering Techniques on Mild Steel. An Overview

Abstract

Mild Steel (MS) is considered as the most widely employed engineering material, which is primarily being used in an automotive industry. Several parts including fuel system, outer and body panel, trims, chassis exhaust, along with many other parts are made up of MS. The driving force behind versatility of MS is its unique set of characteristics. However, the issues arise when its tribological degradation occur that creating problems in service conditions. The best solution for this problem is to coat the mild steel with transition metal-based nitride coatings such as, Ni and Cr. Insufficient Literature is available related to the mechanical performance of single/gradient layer (Ni, Cr) N ternary coating on mild steel substrate. Current review focuses on the characteristics of the coatings that are deposited through two different deposition techniques; electrodeposition and magnetron sputtering. The studied coatings materials are nitrides of nickel and chromium, deposited in several layers. Furthermore, the structural and mechanical properties of these coatings have been compared.