Adhesion analysis of electro less Ni coating on SiC_p/Al composite mirror substrate

SiC_p/Al composite, which has light mass, high thermal conductivity and strength, enhanced specific modulus, compatible coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), sufficiently high wear resistance, is considered as a promising material for the space lightweight mirror. In order to improve the polishing properties of the material, electroless Ni plating on SiC_p/Al composite for the space lightweight mirror was carried out. The adhesion of the coating and substrate was also studied by experiments and molecular simulations. The morphologies of the coated layers were inspected by means of scanning electron microscope (SEM). The experimental results demonstrate that the coating is uniform and compact. The assessments of coatings adhesion were made using scratch test, and the critical load Lc is more than 100 N. Molecular dynamics (MD) was used to simulate the interactions of the coating and composite, and the calculated interaction energy is 108.4 kJ·mol^-1.