DEVELOPMENT OF Ni-P-ZnO NANOCOMPOSITE COATINGS

Abstract

Zinc oxide nanoparticles can be synthesized by physical methods or chemical methods or combinations of both, the chemical method are useful for getting very small size nanoparticles. The nanoparticles are known for a wide variety of applications like UV absorbing properties, antibacterial characteristics and so on. Electroless(EL) co-deposition of particles, represent a method to obtain metal matrix composite materials as thin foils (coatings) at low temperature (90°C). The particles can be synthesized in the bath or added externally to the bath. During the redox reaction between Ni ions and sodium hypophosphite, the particles are physically entrapped in a growing Ni-P layer on the substrate surface. In the present study, synthesis and characterization of a new electroless Ni-P based nanocomposite coatings on mild steel substrate have been carried out. Nanoparticles of Zinc oxide were synthesized through physical method by Ball milling and chemical method by sol-gel technique and co-deposited. The synthesized nanocomposite coatings were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction, FE-SEM, EDAX and AFM analysis.