Tribological behavior of Ni–Co–P/hBN–SiC and Ni–Co–P/hBN nanocomposite coatings prepared employing ultrasonic-assisted pulse electrodeposition

Mechanical components often undergo severe surface wear. To extend service life, this study produced a Ni–Co–P/hBN–SiC nanocomposite coating that exhibited high wear resistance on AISI 1045 steel via ultrasonic-assisted pulse electrodeposition. In addition, the nanocomposite coating was evaluated against both the Ni–Co–P/hBN signal-incorporated and Ni–Co–P baseline coatings to investigate the synergistic effect resulting from the incorporation of binary hBN–SiC nanoparticles on mechanical properties and wear performance. The XRD patterns indicated that, compared with the baseline coating, nanoparticle incorporation refined the grain size of the coating, thereby enhancing its mechanical properties. The Ni–Co–P/hBN–SiC nanocomposite coating exhibited the smallest grain size (15.0 nm), highest microhardness (780.1 HV 0.1 ), and highest nano-hardness of (10.03 GPa). Wear tests conducted on the three coatings under different loads indicated that increasing normal load resulted in higher wear rates. The Ni–Co–P/hBN–SiC coating demonstrated the lowest wear rates, namely 1.94 × 10 −5 mm 3 ·Nm −1 , 3.09 × 10 −5 mm 3 ·Nm −1 , and 3.82 × 10 −5 mm 3 ·Nm −1 at loads of 5 N, 7 N, and 9 N, respectively, representing reductions of 68.8%, 55.2%, and 46.1% relative to the baseline coating. The primary wear mechanism of all three coatings was abrasive wear, accompanied by adhesive and oxidative wear.