Structure dependent super-hydrophobic and corrosion resistant behavior of electrodeposited Ni-MoSe2-MWCNT coating

In this work, hydrophobic and corrosion behavior of multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) reinforced Ni-5 g/l MoSe₂ composite coatings on Ni substrate, synthesized by versatile single pot electro-codeposition process from a solution containing 0.1, 0.5 and 1 g/l of CNT, were compared with pure Ni coating as well as Ni-5 g/l MoSe₂ coating without CNT. All the composite coatings showed excellent hydrophobicity as compared to the pure Ni coating due to the rough surface along with codeposition of low surface energy materials, such as MoSe₂ and MWCNT, in the coating matrix. All the coatings showed improved anti-corrosion behavior as compared to the Ni substrate, and the coating with MoSe₂ and MWCNT further improved the corrosion resistance. Maximum corrosion resistance of the 0.1 g/l MWCNT reinforced Ni-5 g/l MoSe₂ coating among all the coatings could be attributed to the preferred atomically dense (111) plane, lowest lattice strain value, super-hydrophobic surface and higher amount of MWCNT codeposition.