Effects of grain growth on microhardness and coercivity in electrodeposited nanocrystalline nickel
- Resource Type
- research-article
- Authors
- Vidrich, Gabriele; Flejszar, Aneta; Mielczarek, Agnieszka; Riehemann, Werner
- Source
- International Journal of Materials Research. 100(6):895-897
- Subject
- Nanocrystalline nickel
Microhardness
Coercivity
Applied
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2195-8556
1862-5282
Nickel specimens with various grain sizes were produced by electrochemical deposition. As-deposited pure nickel had a mean grain size of 300 nm. By dispersing nanoscaled SiO2- and Al2O3-particles in the electrolyte it was possible to reduce the grain size by incorporation of these particles into the growing nickel matrix. The grain sizes were 150 nm and 60 nm for the Al2O3- and SiO2-reinforced nanocomposite, respectively. Microhardness and coercivity of all samples were measured immediately after electrodeposition and after successive isochronal heat treatments with increasing annealing temperature. Grain growth of the samples could be observed by a decrease in hardness as well as coercivity with increasing annealing temperature.