Preparation of nickel-coated graphite by electroless plating under mechanical or ultrasonic agitation

In this paper, nickel-coated graphite powders were prepared by electroless plating. After a novel and facile pretreatment of graphite, electroless plating was carried out in an alkaline bath having nickel chloride (NiCl2) as a source of nickel and sodium borohydride (NaBH4) as a reducing agent. Duri...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Surface & coatings technology 2014-02, Vol.240, p.425-431
Main Authors: Xu, X., Cui, Z.D., Zhu, S.L., Liang, Y.Q., Yang, X.J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Chlorides
Coatings
Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science
rheology
Electroless plating
Exact sciences and technology
Field emission
Graphite
Materials science
Mechanical agitation
Metallic coatings
Metals. Metallurgy
Nickel
Nickel-coated graphite
Nucleation
Physics
Production techniques
Sodium
Surface treatment
Surface treatments
Ultrasonic agitation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In this paper, nickel-coated graphite powders were prepared by electroless plating. After a novel and facile pretreatment of graphite, electroless plating was carried out in an alkaline bath having nickel chloride (NiCl2) as a source of nickel and sodium borohydride (NaBH4) as a reducing agent. During the electroless nickel plating, mechanical or ultrasonic agitation was adopted to improve the properties of coating. The coated graphite powders were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results show that two different morphologies of Ni–B coatings were achieved on the surface of graphite. Both coatings on graphite are continuous and uniform. For mechanical agitation process, the coating exhibits a sesame-seed slice-like structure which is composed of large spherical grains. The ultrasonic agitation process results in a faster deposition rate and a well-knit membrane-like structure coating free of voids. This is attributed to the easier nucleation and fine particle distribution of nickel nuclei under the ultrasonic agitation. •A facile non-noble metal activation was applied in the pretreatment of graphite.•Two different morphologies of coatings were obtained with distinct agitation.•Membrane-like structure Ni–B coating shows a good adhesion to graphite.•Ultrasonic results in an easier nucleation and a fine particle distribution.
ISSN:0257-8972
1879-3347
DOI:10.1016/j.surfcoat.2013.12.070