Reclamation of thermal power plant waste as a distributed phase in electrodeposited Ni composite coating

Abstract

In the exploration for newer and inexpensive distributed phases that can be used in electrodeposited Ni-composite coatings, cenosphere particles which are one of the constituents of fly ash, the waste product of thermal power plants has been explored as a potential candidate material. An attempt was made to prepare electrodeposited Ni-cenosphere composite coating. The as-received cenosphere particles could be codeposited only after reducing the particle size by ball milling. The loading of cenosphere particles in the Ni-sulphamate bath was varied (25, 75 and 100 g L⁻¹) and a maximum microhardness of 430 HK at 50 gF load was obtained for the coating deposited from 100 g L⁻¹ cenosphere containing bath. The Ni-cenosphere composite coating with higher microhardness exhibited lower wear rate. Thus cenosphere, a waste product from thermal power plants is a potential candidate for a greener surface engineering strategy for improving the wear resistance of electrodeposited Ni composite coating.