Study on wear resistance and toughness of calcium ion crosslinked cellulose nanofibers/multi-walled carbon nanotubes/hexagonal boron nitride hybrid reinforced NiB composite coatings on N80 steel

This study developed a novel Ni B/Ca-CNFs/MWCNTs/h-BN coating on N80 steel. The disadvantages of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) were improved by creatively combining multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), cellulose nanofibers (CNFs), and calcium ion cross-linking strategies. This led to the creation of Ca-CNFs/MWCNTs/h-BN hybrids, which were then doped into Ni B coatings by varying pulse current densities. The results demonstrated that the surface morphology , mechanical properties, and toughness of the composite coating are all influenced by the Ca-CNFs/MWCNTs/h-BN doped at various current densities. Meanwhile, the Ni B/Ca-CNFs/MWCNTs/h-BN (4 A/dm 2 ) coating has the greatest microhardness (902.42 Hv) and the smallest friction coefficient (0.487) under reciprocating dry sliding friction conditions of Si 3 N 4 friction balls. In addition, the results of nanoindentation and tensile tests show that the elastic modulus of Ni B/Ca-CNFs/MWCNTs/h-BN (4 A/dm 2 ) composite coating is 194.096 MPa and the tensile elongation is 12.2 %.