Investigation of greener solvent for electroless nickel plating on ABS substrate

Abstract

This study uses Cyrene, a bio-friendlier etching solvent than the conventional, more toxic variant, NMP, as an etching solvent for the electroless nickel plating (ENP) process on ABS substrates. The experiments conducted in this study include the solvent etching process, the ENP process using the PEI conditioner, and the conventional ENP process. The basic design of this study was to compare the ENP characteristics using two sets of samples, one for NMP and one for Cyrene as its etching solvent. The significant factors that were used to analyze the effectiveness of the solvents were the ENP characteristics, conductivity, and peel adhesion test results of the substrate. Using Cyrene and NMP, an indication of the successful etching and nickel plating was done by measuring the resistance of the plated surface using a conductivity probe tester. A simplified Peel Adhesion Tape Test was also used to characterize the peel adhesion strength of the plating on the substrates after the ENP process. Analysis of the results found that Cyrene is a potent substitute for NMP as an etching solvent. Substrates etched with Cyrene performed similarly in plating pattern and area. Cyrene displayed a 12% reduction of the area removed from the Peel Adhesion Test compared to NMP, thus concluding that Cyrene is an excellent bio-friendlier substitute to NMP as an etching solvent.