Electroless nickel-phosphorus plating on copper plate by palladium activation technique

Abstract

Electroless plating is an autocatalytic method which is not require electrical current for deposition to occur. The deposition occurs by the supplies of electrons with the presents of reducing agent that contain sodium hypophosphite (SHP).  The electroless Ni-P deposited on copper plate which are passive metal and need to pretreat by the suitable activator. Thus, this research investigates operation condition of palladium activator and Ni-P bath on copper plate. Deposition of nickel is using KFJ-20 bath which is one of the best formulation from Uyemura (M) Sdn. Bhd. KAT-450 activator that contains palladium is used to activate the plate before nickel plating taking place. The electroless plating process begin with cleaning, soft-etching, acid dipping, activation and deposition of Ni-P. Besides copper, Ni-P also deposited onto iron plate to differentiate the effectiveness of palladium as an activator. The best deposition condition was found to be on iron plate with 3 mins dipping time in activator, 20 mins deposition time and 90˚C bath temperature. Deposition of nickel onto iron also done without activator and the best deposition time is at 40 mins with 90˚C bath temperature. Meanwhile, the copper plate shows all negative results which indicate that palladium activation is failed to deposit nickel onto it. The roughness of the surface is depending on the concentration of palladium on the KAT-450 activator and deposition time.