Enhancing The Electrical Conductivity by Graphene Growing On Nickel Electroplated Bolts By Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) Technique

Year 2025, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 49 - 60, 20.06.2025

Etkin Can , Metehan Atagür

Abstract

The increasing popularity of electric vehicles in recent years brings different demands in the automotive industry. Even the simplest components in EV such as bolts and nuts require new technologies to meet customer demands. Conductive coatings are one of the examples of such demands in order to get rid of the load accumulation that may occur inside the vehicle by grounding.
Thanks to the high electrical conductivity of copper, electrolytic copper plating process for fasteners is widely used for such applications. However, electrolytic copper coating brings disadvantages such as low corrosion resistance that brings fast darkening as a result of oxidation and galvanic corrosion that may occur due to the fact that the opposite part is a different metal.
In this study, graphene was grown on electrolytic pure nickel-plated bolts by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. RAMAN analyses were performed to confirm graphene formation on nickel-plated samples. Graphene coated samples were tested in Norm coating in electrically conductive SCANIA STD 4472 setup. To evaluate the corrosion resistance, ISO 9227 salt spray test was performed.

Keywords

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD), Graphene, Electric vehicles (EVs), Electroplating

Ethical Statement

"The authors confirm that no ethical approval was required from institutional committees for the completion of this research. Additionally, the authors also confirm that there are no conflicts of interest related to this study, and all authors have approved the final version of the manuscript submitted for publication.

Supporting Institution

This research was supported by Norm Coating Engineering Department, which provided technical resources, laboratory facilities, and invaluable professional support throughout the duration of the study. The authors gratefully acknowledge Norm Coating for their significant contributions and collaboration that made this work possible.

Thanks

The authors would like to thank Prof. Dr. Fethullah Güneş, Çağlar Erdem, and Berkay Sallak for their valuable support and contributions to this work. The authors also express their gratitude to Norm Coating for the technical and moral support provided during the course of this study.

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