Nickel/alumina nanocomposite coatings were deposited electrochemically from a modified Watts bath containing 120 g/L NiSO
4·6H
2O, 70 g/L NiCl
2·6H
2O and 50 g/L H
3BO
3 into which various amounts (20, 40, 60, 80 g/L) of α-Al
2O
3 nanopowder were added. These samples were denoted as: Ni, Ni/Al
2O
3-20, Ni/Al
2O
3-40, Ni/Al
2O
3-60 and Ni/Al
2O
3-80. Additionally, nanocomposite coatings produced from the bath, which, beside the 80 g/L of α-Al
2O
3, contained 1 g/L of saccharin, were also examined and denoted as Ni/Al
2O
3-80 + S. The size of the alumina particles ranged from 80 to 150 nm. The details regarding the electrodeposition of nickel/alumina coatings on low carbon steel substrates have already been published (Ref
13,
43). In order to identify the effect of the ceramic particles on the Ni/Al
2O
3 deposit properties, all the coatings were deposited using a potentiostat/galvanostat AUTOLAB model PGSTAT 302 under the same conditions: current density of 5 A/dm
2, pH 4, temperature of 40 °C, anode—a vertically placed nickel (99.9% purity) plate, and cathode—a vertically mounted low carbon steel disk with a diameter of 20 mm. Before the co-deposition, the alumina particles were ultrasonically dispersed in the bath for 2 h and mechanically agitated (800 rpm) using a magnetic stirrer. During the electrodeposition, the bath was stirred using a magnetic stirrer with a stirring rate of 500 rpm and circulated with a peristaltic pump (50 rpm). The obtained coatings were ultrasonically cleaned to remove particles loosely adherent to their surface. The thickness of the analyzed coatings was in the range of 9.7-12 µm. The coatings were completely characterized with the use of XRD techniques (Bruker D8 diffractometer with Co Kα filtered radiation) as well as scanning and transmission electron microscopes (SEM—FEI QUANTA 3D FEG, and TEM—FEI TECNAI G
2). The thin foils were prepared by the focused ion beam (FIB) technique with the use of an FEI Quanta 3D dual beam. The amount of Al
2O
3 nanoparticles incorporated into the Ni matrix was determined with the use of Loco’s Shire dedicated to image analysis. The particles percentage by volume (vol.%) was determined based on ten areas of the SEM coating microstructures (8.9 µm × 14.7 µm) of the cross sections of the coatings. The residual stresses were measured based on the 311 Ni reflection (2
θ = 114.9°)—with the use of the sin
2ψ method. The indentation technique (Ref
44,
45) was used to evaluate the hardness and the elasticity modulus. The tests were performed at the 50 mN maximum load and the 100 mN/min loading and unloading rate with the use of the CSEM-MCT equipment. On each coating, at least nine indentations were made, and for further analysis, the average values were taken. The tests of the wear and friction coefficient of Ni/Al
2O
3 coatings were performed under dry conditions with the use of a ball-on-disk tribometer [according to the ISO standard (Ref
46)] with 6-mm-diameter sintered α-Al
2O
3 spheres. The tests were performed at the temperature of 22 ± 2 °C with the relative humidity of 50 ± 2%. The normal load was 10 N, the linear sliding speed of the ball was 0.05 m/s, the radius was 7 mm, and the number of cycles was 20,000. Only for the Ni/Al
2O
3-80 + S wear, the index wear was calculated after 80,000 cycles. After the tests, the wear track profiles were measured, and then, the specific wear index
W
V
was calculated from the formula:
$$W_{V} = \frac{V}{{F_{\text{n}} \cdot s}}$$
where
V—volume of the removed material calculated on the basis of the average cross-sectional area of the grooves,
F
n—normal load,
s—sliding distance. The worn surfaces were subjected to SEM observations for the analysis of the wear mechanism. The topography of the coatings after polishing was analyzed by means of a Talysurf CCI Lite non-contact 3D profiler (Ref
47).