Electroless E-coating

Song G-L. (2008a), An electroless e-coating bath sealing technique for anodized and conversion coated magnesium alloys , MPL-641(GM confidential report). 

An recent interesting development in electrocoating is the electroless E-coating of Mg alloys in a conventional electrocoating bath [45,46,53]. In this novel process, pre-treated Mg alloy is immersed in an electrocoating... 

G. Song, Electroless E-coating an innovative surface treatment for magnesium alloys, Electrochem. Solid State Lett. 12 (2009) D77-D79. 

Under micro-discontinuous chromium coatings, copper undercoats improve corrosion resistance. On non-conductors, especially on plastic substrates, copper is often applied before nickel-chromium plating over the initial electroless copper or nickel deposit in order to improve ductility and adhesion, e.g. as tested by the standard thermal-cycling test methods ... 

Electroless deposition as we know it today has had many applications, e.g., in corrosion prevention [5-8], and electronics [9]. Although it yields a limited number of metals and alloys compared to electrodeposition, materials with unique properties, such as Ni-P (corrosion resistance) and Co-P (magnetic properties), are readily obtained by electroless deposition. It is in principle easier to obtain coatings of uniform thickness and composition using the electroless process, since one does not have the current density uniformity problem of electrodeposition. However, as we shall see, the practitioner of electroless deposition needs to be aware of the actions of solution additives and dissolved O2 gas on deposition kinetics, which affect deposit thickness and composition uniformity. Nevertheless, electroless deposition is experiencing increased interest in microelectronics, in part due to the need to replace expensive vacuum metallization methods with less expensive and selective deposition methods. The need to find creative deposition methods in the emerging field of nanofabrication is generating much interest in electroless deposition, at the present time more so as a useful process however, than as a subject of serious research. 

The incorporation of a third element, e.g. Cu, in electroless Ni-P coatings has been shown to improve thermal stability and other properties of these coatings [99]. Chassaing et al. [100] carried out an electrochemical study of electroless deposition of Ni-Cu-P alloys (55-65 wt% Ni, 25-35 wt% Cu, 7-10 wt% P). As mentioned earlier, pure Cu surfaces do not catalyze the oxidation of hypophosphite. They observed interactions between the anodic and cathodic processes both reactions exhibited faster kinetics in the full electroless solutions than their respective half cell environments (mixed potential theory model is apparently inapplicable). The mechanism responsible for this enhancement has not been established, however. It is possible that an adsorbed species related to hypophosphite mediates electron transfer between the surface and Ni2+ and Cu2+, rather in the manner that halide ions facilitate electron transfer in other systems, e.g., as has been recently demonstrated in the case of In electrodeposition from solutions containing Cl [101]. 

Manufacture of Printed Wiring Boards. Printed wiring boards, or printed circuit boards, are usually thin flat panels than contain one or multiple layers of thin copper patterns that interconnect the various electronic components (e.g. integrated circuit chips, connectors, resistors) that are attached to the boards. These panels are present in almost every consumer electronic product and automobile sold today. The various photopolymer products used to manufacture the printed wiring boards include film resists, electroless plating resists (23), liquid resists, electrodeposited resists (24), solder masks (25), laser exposed photoresists (26), flexible photoimageable permanent coatings (27) and polyimide interlayer insulator films (28). Another new use of photopolymer chemistry is the selective formation of conductive patterns in polymers (29). 

It is interesting to conclude this section with an example that, in a sense, brings the chapter full circle. The metallization of plastic materials used as metal substitutes is a process with actual and future commercial potential. Usually, plastics are plated after appropriate sensitization by an electroless process which involves reduction of metal ions (e.g. Ni2+, Cu2+) by chemical rather than electrical means.19 There seems no reason why the reducing agent should not be incorporated in the polymer and Murray and his collaborators101 have demonstrated that copper, silver, cobalt and nickel may each be electrodeposited on to films of [poly-Ru(bipy)2(4-vinylpyridine)2]2+ coated on to platinum electrodes. The metal reductions are mediated by the Ru1 and Ru° states of the polymer. 

Ionic liquids complex metals and therefore offer the possibility to develop novel electroless plating baths for coating polymers (e.g. in electronics) without the need for the toxic and problematic organic complexants used in water. 

Some applications are at a fundamental research stage with associated higher risk, i.e. electroless coating, semiconductors, anodising, nanocomposite coatings. 

Electroless plating — An autocatalytic process of metal deposition on a substrate by reduction of metal ions from solution without using an external source of electrons. It is promoted by specific reductants, namely formaldehyde, sodium hypophosphide, sodium boro-hydride, dialkylamine borane, and hydrazine. Electroless deposition has been used to produce different metal (e.g., nickel, cobalt, copper, gold, platinum, palladium, silver) and alloy coatings. It can be applied to any type of substrate including non-conductors. Some substrates are intrinsic catalytic for the electroless deposition other can be catalyzed usually by sensibilization followed by Pd nucleation also, in some non-catalytic metallic substrates the electroless process can be induced by an initial application of an appropriate potential pulse. In practical terms, the evaluation of the catalytic activity of a substrate for the electroless deposition of a given metal is... 

Nanocomposites are materials in which nanoparticles (in this case, nanorods) are dispersed in a continuous matrix. The matrix may be a polymer, nanorods, or other nanoparticles. Nanorod composites find applications in diverse areas such as efficient charge storage, removal of contaminants (e.g. surfactant) from water, emissivity control devices, and metallodielectrics, and so on. A number of methods such as electroless deposition, the sol-gel method, the hydrothermal method, solution casting, carbother-mal reduction, the template-based method, the sonochemical method, and electrospinning can be used to prepare composite nanorods. Nanorod composites are different from core-shell nanorods. In core-shell nanorods, the coating is uniform, whereas in the nanorod composite (consisting of a nanorod and a nanoparticle on a surface), fine nanoparticles are dispersed on the surface of the nanorods. Some specific examples of the preparation of nanocomposites consisting of nanorods are described below. 

Schuerle, S., Pane, S., Pellicer, E., Sort, J., Bar6, M.D., Nelson, B.J., 2012. Helical and tubular lipid microstructures that are electroless-coated with CoNiReP for wireless magnetic manipulation. Small 8 (10), 1498—1502. 

The development of protective coatings, e.g. electroless nickel or some cold-applied composite coatings, is one way forward for the technical and economic optimisation of this type of unit. 

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