Electroless Ni–B Coating Formed from a Stabilizer-Free Double Bath

The present work investigates the deposition of nickel boron coatings by electroless method. A double bath scheme was adopted, and the bath temperature was also varied to get coatings in different boron range. The double bath coatings have higher microhardness, scratch hardness, wear and corrosion resistance compared to single bath deposits. The double bath scheme led to the formation of coatings with a compact crack-free morphology except at 95 °C bath temperature. The improvement in hardness was 16.85, 11.43 and 10% at 85, 90 and 95 °C bath temperature compared to the single bath coatings. The increase in scratch hardness was within 20–22%. A higher corrosion potential of − 180 and − 178 mV was also seen.