Investigation on electroless nickel plating to reduce number of process

Abstract

Conventional usage of Electroless Nickel Plating (ENP) is widely common in commercial engineering industries such as aerospace and microelectronics. Some of its advantages is that the method of plating provides excellent resistance to corrosion and superior ductility which is important in engineering applications. However, the process to achieve a nickel-plated part requires several steps, therefore the focus of this study is to investigate the variables that can be modified in an experimental setting to achieve nickel plating on a non-conductive substrate while removing the reduction step. This project uses Polyethylenimine (PEI) solution as a pre-treatment for a non-conductive etched Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) substrate. Palladium (II) Chloride (PdCl2) solution is fixed as the catalyst for the study. Experiments in this project utilises ENP process with reduction step to serve as the benchmark for further tests. ENP without the reduction step will be evaluated later in the project to understand the role and importance of the reducing agent in plating. Temperature and dipping duration are the essential variables in this experiment to determine whether these variables will affect the outcome of an ENP process without reduction.