The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of sodium citrate as an additive on the grain size of nickel electroplating SPCC steel. For this purpose, nickel were deposited by direct current electrodeposition from a Watts bath at the current density of 6 A/dm~2 with adding different amount of sodium citrate (5, 15, 30, 45, 60 g/L). X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to determine the average gain size of the nickel coatings. Effect of adding sodium citrate on nickel electroplating on hardness, corrosion resistance, and adhesive strength were also investigated by Vickers Hardness, salt spray test, and bending test. The smallest grain size was obtained with grain size 36.8 nm with adding 45 g/L sodium citrate. The hardest nickel deposit was 701 HV with presence of sodium citrate complex in the deposit. Corrosion resistance and adhesive strength were increased by adding sodium citrate in the nickel electroplating bath.
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