Abstract
Ni-W alloy deposits have lately attracted the interest as an alternative surface treatment method for hard chromium electrodeposits because of higher wear resistance, hardness at high temperature, and corrosion resistance. This study deals with influences of process variables, such as electodeposition current density, plating temperature and pH, on the internal stress of Ni-W nanocrystalline deposits. The internal stress was increased with increasing the applied current density. With increasing applied current density, the grain size of the deposit decreases and concentration of hydrogen in the deposit increases. The subsequent release of the hydrogen results in shrinkage of the deposit and the introduction of tensile stress in the deposit. Consequently, for layers deposited at high current density, cracking occurs readily owing to high tensile stress value. By increasing the temperature of the electrodeposition from $60^{\circ}C$ to $80^{\circ}C$, the internal stress was decreased. It seems that an increase in the number of active ions overcoming the activation energy at elevated temperature caused a decline in the concentration polarization and surface diffusion. It decreased the level of hydrogen absorption due to the lessened hydrogen evolution reaction. Therefore, the lower level of hydrogen absorption degenerated the hydride on the surface of the electrode, resulting in the reduction of the internal stress of the deposits. By increasing the pH of the electrodeposition from 5.6 to 6.8, the internal stress in the deposits were slightly decreased. It is considered that the decrease in internal stess of deposits was due to supply of W complex compound in cathode surface, and hydrogen ion resulted from decrease of activity.
