Experimental–MATLAB Modelling Framework for Predicting the Surface Characteristics of Magneto-Electrophoretic Chitosan/ZnO Composite Coating

The present article explores an integrated experimental–MATLAB modelling framework to predict the surface characteristics of magneto-electrophoretically deposited (MEPD) Chitosan/ZnO (CZnO) composite coatings. CZnO coatings were fabricated on SS316L substrates and the influence of magnetic field voltage of 12 V to 24 V was systematically investigated. As the magnetic field voltage increases, the coating thickness increased from around 80 µm to 129 µm. The increase in water contact angle values from 64º to 80º and surface roughness values from 8.55 µm to 20.29 µm, improved the deposition and surface hydrophobicity. Using experimental data, a quadratic-fit MATLAB model was developed to estimate contact angle, surface roughness, and coating thickness. With minimum variations of 2.63%, 4.68%, and 3.34% for coating thickness, surface roughness, and contact angle, the developed model had a good agreement with experimental results, achieving a low prediction error. Furthermore, the factors responsible for the deviations between experimental and predicted values were more detailed in this article. • Magnetic field–assisted EPD enabled controlled CZnO coating deposition on SS-316L. • Deposition, roughness, wettability relationships were experimentally quantified. • Experimental–MATLAB framework developed to predict the surface characteristics. • Lower deviations indicate the MATLAB model captures underlying deposition mechanisms.