Wear and Corrosion Resistance of Nanostructured Coatings on Mild Steel

Abstract

The wear and corrosion of mild steel limit its service life in many engineering applications, and surface coatings are widely used to protect it.Nanostructured coatings, with their fine grain size and dense structure, offersuperior protection, and their study is an important application ofnanotechnology in surface engineering. This paper investigates the wear and corrosion resistance of a nanostructured coating applied to mild steel. The coating was deposited on mild steel substrates, and the wear behaviour,microhardness, and corrosion resistance of the coated steel were comparedwith those of the uncoated steel through wear testing and electrochemicalmeasurement. The results show that the nanostructured coating greatlyincreased the microhardness and markedly reduced the wear rate and thecoefficient of friction relative to the uncoated steel, and that it substantiallyimproved the corrosion resistance, shifting the corrosion potential to a morenoble value and lowering the corrosion current. The improvements areattributed to the hard, dense, fine-grained structure of the coating, whichresists material removal and acts as a barrier to the corrosive environment.The study demonstrates that the nanostructured coating effectively protectsmild steel against both wear and corrosion. KEYWORDS: Nanostructured Coating, Wear Resistance, CorrosionResistance, Mild Steel, Surface Engineering, Microhardness, Nanotechnology