Development of corrosion and fretting wear resistant AlCoCrFeNi high entropy alloy coatings prepared by electrodeposition using an aqueous electrolyte

Abstract

This work aims to fabricate an AlCoCrFeNi high entropy alloy (HEA) coating on a Cu substrate utilizing a chloride-based aqueous electrolyte through electrodeposition. The corrosion and fretting wear behavior of the deposited HEA coating was examined. All the elements were co-deposited in near equiatomic composition, and the coating surface exhibited uniform globular morphology as indicated by scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The deposited HEA coating possessed a single-phase FCC crystal structure. The deposited HEA coating exhibited higher corrosion resistance than the Cu substrate, with a corrosion protection efficiency of 65.34 % and a corrosion current density of 4.12 μA/cm2. Furthermore, the fretting wear of the HEA coating decreased by about 43 %, and the friction coefficient was only 0.52 compared to 0.8 for the Cu-substrate. The wear rate of HEA coating was 9.37 x 10−4 mm3N−1.m. The wear mechanism in HEA coating was characterized as primary abrasive and delamination wear with minor adhesive wear. The high corrosion resistance of the AlCoCrFeNi HEA coating was attributed to the formation of a stable passive oxides film on its surface, while high wear resistance was due to the high hardness of the coating. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.