Abstract
Ni coating was carried out by pulse plating at room temperature. So, experimental conditions for Ni-coating were based on Watt's bath, and new additives(propionic acid) were introduced in the Watt's bath electrolyte as $H_3$$BO_3$ alternatives. By adding propionic acid, coating layer demonstrated a good adhesion and uniformity without special pre-treatment of the 316L stainless steel at room temperature. With a decrease of amount of propionic acid and applied average current density, cathode current efficiency increased. Also, edge effect was decreased with decreasing a peak current and increasing a pulse frequency in the same bath condition. It was found that the optimum condition for Ni coating was a current density of 10~20mA/$\textrm{cm}^2$ at below 500 mA peak current in the $5m\ell/\ell$ propionic acid solution.