## 3 Results and Discussions
### Effects of Electrodeposition Parameters on Morphology and Composition of the Ni/SiCw Composite
However, the electrolyte flew at a high speed when the stirring strength is higher than 300 rpm, which caused intense shock to the cathode surface, led to high-speed transfer of the electrolyte accompanied by whiskers and suppressed the attachment of whiskers to the cathode surface. More seriously, whiskers that were not fully embedded in the nickel matrix might be released from the cathode surface to the electrolyte, which resulted in a dramatic decrease of the whisker content in the composite coatings. The cross-sectional SEM images of Ni/SiC_w_ composite coatings prepared with different electrodeposited conditions were shown in Figure 4. From Figure 4a,b, in which the current density ranges from 2 to 8 mA cm\({}^{-2}\), an increase in the number of SiC_w_ (pointed by an arrow), which are fairly well dispersed in the nickel matrix, can be clearly observed on the fracture surface. According to the micrographs of the cross section, the fracture surface does not represent the initial interface between the the nickel matrix and SiC_w_ after breaking with external force, so the interface was further illustrated after treatment by an ion beam thinner (Figure 4c,d). From the cross-sectional images of the thinned surface, the whiskers were cut in an identical plane, but in different orientations, due to their random distribution in the the nickel matrix; meanwhile, multiple shapes of whiskers after thinning by ion beam thinner were also noticed. Figure 3: SEM images of Ni/SiC_w_ composite coating fabricated from the electrolyte at a current density of 18 mA/cm\({}^{2}\), and temperatures of 50 \({}^{\circ}\)C, and stirring speed of **(a)** 0 rpm, **(b)** 100 rpm, **(c)** 300 rpm, **(d)** 500 rpm. The EDS spectra of Ni/SiCw composite coatings, prepared at different conditions, are illustrated in Figure 5; and is related to the EDS spectra, which has been listed, as shown in Table 2. As shown in Figure 5a, only Ni peaks were observed in the sample without SiCw coating, whereas the peaks of Ni, Si and C were all collected in Figure 5b-e. The EDS results indicated that the SiC whiskers were incorporated into the nickel matrix successfully. Besides, the obviously increased content of Si and C could be seen from Figure 5b,c, which was resulted from the increased current density from 2 to 18 mA/cm\({}^{2}\). Since the co-deposition rate of SiCw was strongly related to that of Ni matrix in the process of electrodeposition, then increasing current density could promote the deposition rate of matrix metals and save the time of SiCw embedding into the Ni matrix. In Figure 5c,d, the EDS spectra of the Ni/SiCw coatings deposited at 35 \({}^{\circ}\)C and 50 \({}^{\circ}\)C, which showed that the higher temperature facilitated the increase of whiskers content in electrodeposits. It shows that the higher temperature facilitates the increase of whiskers content in electrodeposits. As to the influence of stirring speed on the content of SiCw, the stronger stirring speed can contribute to the whiskers transmitting to the cathode surface from the electrolyte which results in its higher content in coatings (Figure 5e). Figure 4: SEM images of the cross section for the fracture (**a**,**b**) and thinned surface (**c**,**d**) of the electrodeposited Ni/SiCw composite coatings (**a**) SiCw 0.8 g L\({}^{-1}\), 2 mA/cm\({}^{2}\), 35 \({}^{\circ}\)C, 150 rpm; (**b**) SiCw 0.8 g L\({}^{-1}\), 18 mA/cm\({}^{2}\), 35 \({}^{\circ}\)C, 150 rpm; (**c**) and (**d**) represent the thinned surface of (**a**) and (**b**), respectively. Effects of Electrodeposition Parameters on Crystallographic Texture of the Ni/SiCw Composite Coatings  
For all the electrodeposited coatings, the nickel crystals are face-centered cubic structures (FCC). The three peaks at 20 = 44.5, 51.85 and 76.37\({}^{\circ}\) that corresponds to (111), (200) and (220) crystallographic planes of nickel respectively, are in agreement with the standard XRD pattern JCPDS 04-0850. Note that the peaks corresponding to the SiC_w_ were not detected in the XRD pattern of the composites.