Ni-fluoropolymers composite coatings obtained via electroless plating for anti-icing application

Electroless pure nickel plating was used as a manufacturing technique to produce Ni-fluoropolymers composite coatings on Ti6Al4V substrates. To evaluate the influence of the surface roughness on the water drop contact angle, four different coating architectures (Ni, Ni+FEP, Ni polished and Ni+FEP polished) have been proposed and implemented. Firstly, as a coating reference, a single layer of pure Ni coating was deposited (thickness around 10 µm); then, Ni+FEP single layer was deposited with the help of a surfactant added to the nanoparticles solution to avoid the agglomeration of the filler. Water drop contact angles as a function of time were studied for the different samples and it turns out that the presence of the fluoropolymer fillers inside the matrix deeply modify the wettability of the Ni matrix surface. These results show how coatings obtained by this synthesis technique can be used as possible candidates for passive anti-icing systems