Corrosion-Resistant Metal-Ceramic Composite Coatings for Tribological Applications

Abstract Effective design of corrosion-resistant coatings is critical for the protection of metals and alloys. Many state-of-the-art corrosion-resistant coatings are unable to satisfy the challenges in extreme environments for tribological applications, such as elevated or cryogenic temperatures, high mechanical loads and impacts, severe wear, chemical attack, or a combination of these. The nature of challenging conditions demands that coatings have high corrosion and wear resistance, sustained friction control, and maintain surface integrity. In this research, multi-performance metal-ceramic composite coatings were developed for applications in harsh environments. These coatings were developed with an easy to fabricate, low-cost, and safe procedure. The coating consisted of boron nitride, graphite, silicon carbide, and transition metals such as chromium or nickel using epoxy as vehicle and bonding agent. Salt spray (SS) corrosion tests showed that 1010 carbon steel (1/4 hard temper) substrates lost 20–100 × more mass than the coatings. The potentiodynamic polarization study showed better performance of the coatings by seven orders of magnitude in terms of corrosion relative to the substrate. Additionally, the corrosion rates of the coatings with Ni as an additive were five orders of magnitude lower than reported. The coefficient of friction (COF) of coatings was as low as 0.1, five to six times lower than that of epoxy and lower than a wide range of epoxy resin-based coatings found in literature. Coatings developed here exhibited potential in applications in challenging environments for tribological applications.