Effect of h-BN on corrosion behavior of nickel-copper alloy coatings prepared by high-speed laser cladding

Nickel-copper alloy is widely used because of its strong corrosion resistance in marine environment. There are great potentials to prepare NiCu alloy coatings on the surface of structural steel to replace cast NiCu alloys due to its high cost. High-speed laser cladding has characteristics of fast melting rate, low surface roughness, fine microstructure and low dilution ratio. However, nickel alloy coatings has the problem of solidification cracks. In this study, a series of composite coatings were prepared by using NiCu powders with different h-BN contents, then the effect of h-BN on structure and anti-corrosion of coatings was analyzed. The study shows that the structure of the NiCu composite alloy coatings was equiaxed crystals, columnar crystals and planar crystals from top to bottom portion. After adding h-BN, the coating had a lower oxygen vacancy mobility rate, resulted in the optimal corrosion resistance of passive film.