Nanomechanical characterization of nanocrystalline Ni directly plated on aluminium

This paper will for the first time discuss a new, an innovative and world´s first ever process for directly electrodepositing nanocrystalline Ni on aluminium surfaces without the need to pretreat the aluminium substrates with acid/s and pre-plate with an intermediate metallic layer. Nanomechanical test instrument was used to evaluate the mechanical properties of the as plated Ni/Al₂O₃/Al layers. Several partial-unloading nanoindentation tests were performed on the samples using a Berkovich probe to measure the hardness and reduced modulus of the samples as a function of contact depth. These test results will be discussed further to elucidate the mechanism of adhesion of the electrodeposited nanocrystalline Ni with the intermediate nonconductive aluminium oxide (Al₂O₃) layer at a nano-scale.