Preparation and Characterization of Nanostructured Ni-TiN Composite Films

Ni-TiN nanocomposite films were produced from a Ni plating bath containing TiN nanopar-ticles by using dc electroplating method. The structure and surface morphology of Ni-TiN composite coatings were analyzed by atom force microscope, X-ray diffraction, and trans-mission electron microscopy. Meanwhile, the anti-corrosion properties, hardness and ther-mostability of Ni-TiN nanocomposite films were also investigated and compared with the traditional polycrystalline Ni coatings. The results show that, compared with the tradi-tional polycrystalline Ni film, Ni-TiN nanocomposite coatings display much better corrosion resistance, higher film hardness, and thermal stability. In addition, the hardness of Ni-TiN nanocomposite coatings decreases slightly with the increase of electroplating current density,which may be due to the synergism of hydrogen evolution and faster nucleation/growth rate of nickel crystallites.