Rare earth effect on the microstructure and wear resistance of Ni-based coatings

Eight different Cr3C2–NiCr coatings doped with rare earth oxide were deposited with supersonic plasma spraying. Surface contact profiler, X-ray diffractometer, environmental scanning electron microscopy, multi-functional tribometer, microhardness tester were employed to investigate the microstructure and friction and wear performance of sprayed coatings. The results show that the wear volume loss of coatings doped with 2 wt.% La2O3 and 2 wt% La2O3 + 2wt.% CeO2 is three orders of magnitude smaller than that of the coating without rare earth, respectively, correspondingly the friction coefficient of two coatings is only two third of that of the coating without rare earth. According to the SEM worn surface observations, the wear mechanism of the coating doped with 2 wt% La2O3 is strain crushed wear induced by plastic deformation and fatigue during the sliding process, which is distinct with abrasive wear and delamination fracture wear mechanisms of the coating without rare earth. Furthermore, rare earth can make the microstructure more compact, less porous and denser, leading to the increase of average microhardness and decrease of its fluctuation range of sprayed coatings.