STUDIES ON SURFACE STRUCTURE, MORPHOLOGY AND COMPOSITION OF Co–W COATINGS ELECTRODEPOSITED WITH DIRECT AND PULSE CURRENT USING GLUCONATE BATH

Co–W alloy coatings were deposited with direct current (DC) and pulse current (PC) electrodeposition methods using gluconate bath at pH5 and characterized by X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). DSC studies hint at the possibility of formation of metallic glasses. Detailed XPS studies of these alloy coatings have been carried out to compare elemental states and composition of Co and W in DC and PC electrodeposited alloys. DC-plated alloy has significant amount of Co and W metal along with their respective oxidized species. In contrast, mainly oxidized metals are present in the following layers of as-deposited coatings prepared with PC plating. Concentration of Co metal is observed to increase during sputtering, whereas there is no change in W6+ concentration. Microhardness measurement of all the Co–W coatings shows higher hardness compared to Co metal and 1:1 and 1:4 PC electrodeposited coatings show little higher hardness compared to 1:2 PC electrodeposited coating.