EFFECTS OF ALLOYING ELEMENTS AND SURFACE PROPERTIES ON THE CORROSION BEHAVIOR OF HVOF-DEPOSITED WC COATINGS

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the corrosion behavior of nickel-aluminum buffer and tungsten-carbide-based ceramic-metal composite coated materials on EN 1.4404 quality stainless steels in a sulfuric acid (H2SO4) environment for petrochemical industry applications. For this purpose, tungsten-carbide-based coatings were produced on nickel-aluminum-deposited 1.4404 stainless-steel substrates using the HVOF (High Velocity Oxy-Fuel) technique. In the characterization of coatings, X-ray diffraction (XRD) for phase analysis, optical microscope and scanning electron microscope (SEM) for surface morphology, image analyzer for coating thickness measurements, energy distribution spectroscopy (EDS) for elemental analysis, and roughness device for surface structures, were used. WC-, Co-, Ni-, and NiAl-based phases were observed in the coatings. According to metallographic studies, all the coatings had a similar coating microstructure and made good contact with the substrate. Potentiodynamic polarization measurements and corrosion tests were carried out to determine the corrosion behavior of HVOF plasma-sprayed coatings using a potentiostat/galvanostat. The results showed that the WCCo-NiAl-coated stainless-steel substrate had a higher corrosion resistance to the H2SO4 environment than the NiAl and WCNi-NiAl samples.