Materials Letters
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s e v i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / m a t l e t
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: A novel palladium-free and environmentally friendly surface activation process for Ni electroless plating was
Received 26 June 2008 studied. The activation was carried out by immobilizing Ni nanoparticles as catalyst site on the ABS plastic
Accepted 6 January 2009 surface. It is a cost effective activation method since Ni nanoparticles were successfully used as catalyst. The
Available online 10 January 2009
surface of ABS foils after etching and activating was investigated by XPS to get more information about the
interfacial reaction mechanisms. Ni nanoparticles were uniformly formed on the substrate and a glossy
Keywords:
and smooth Ni–P plating layer was obtained according to the SEM photographs. XRD pattern showed that the
Palladium-free
Ni–P layer is amorphous.
Surface activation
Nanoparticle
© 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Nickel deposition
XPS
SEM
XRD
0167-577X/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.matlet.2009.01.006
X. Tang et al. / Materials Letters 63 (2009) 840–842 841
Table 1
XPS data for Ni, NiSO4, H2SO4, CTS, ABS and ABS-CTS-Ni (eV)
Fig. 1. SEM photograph of ABS–CTS–Ni. Fig. 3. XRD pattern of electroless deposition Ni–P layer.
842 X. Tang et al. / Materials Letters 63 (2009) 840–842
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