Effect of electro-co-deposition parameters on surface mechanical properties of Cu–TiO2 composite coating

The present work describes processing and properties of Cu–TiO2 electrodeposited coating on copper substrate with optimized current density and ultrafine ceramic TiO2 powder in the plating bath. Direct current electrodeposition process was employed to develop the composite coating with Cu matrix and ceramic oxide (TiO2) nanoparticles as reinforcement on copper substrate. The coatings were developed with 0 (unreinforced), 10 and 30 g l −1 TiO2 powder in bath, at four different current densities (5, 8, 11 and 14 A dm −2 ) to study the effect of current density and particle concentration in bath on the structure and properties of the developed coatings. Phase, microstructure and compositional analysis of the coatings were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), respectively. Hardness and wear resistance of the coatings were analysed by using microhardness tester and ball on plate wear tester and improvement in these properties was observed due to particle reinforcement and crystallographic texture.