Experimental Investigations on Electroless Plating of Nickel on Steel

Electroless nickel plating on steel is carried out by a chemical reaction and without the use of an external source of electricity. In electroless nickel plating, nickel chloride will come as a metallic salt and is reduced by using Sodium hypophosphite as the reducing agent to nickel metal, which then is deposited on the steel. This process has now become an established industrial technique and gained increasing importanc. By such means not only pure metals but also alloys can be deposited on ferrous and non-ferrous materials to improve their surface characteristics. By using appropriate pee- plate treatment methods, a wide range of plastics and ceramics can also be plated by electroless methods. These processes have particular advantages in the field where galvanic processes can only be used at great expense or where they fail completely. The present paper studies the effect of different process parameters during electroless plating of nickel on steel. The effect of bath temperature, immerasion time and bath pH on plating thickness,and deposition rate has been recorded and presented in graphical form.