• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.75-80
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• 2010

Electroless nickel plating on porous carbon substrate was investigated. The pore sizes of carbon substrates were 16-20 ${\mu}m$ and over 20 ${\mu}m$. The carbon surface was changed from hydrophobic to hydrophilic after immersing the substrate in an ammonia solution for 40 min at $60^{\circ}C$. The contact angle of water was decreased from $85^{\circ}$ to less than $20^{\circ}$ after ammonia pretreatment. The content of phosphorous in nickel deposit was decreased with increasing pH and then deposits became crystallized. The thickness of nickel deposit was increased with increasing pH. The minimum concentration of $PdCl_2$ for the electroless nickel plating was 5 ppm and the thickness of nickel was not significantly affected by the concentration of $PdCl_2$.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.25.2-25.2
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• 2011

Recently, thin film capacitors used for vehicle inverters are small size, high capacitance, fast response, and large capacitance. But its applications were made up of liquid as electrolyte, so its capacitors are limited to low operating temperature range and the polarity. This research proposes using Ni-P alloys by electroless plating as the electrode instead of liquid electrode. Our substrate has a high aspect ratio and complicated shape because of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO). We used AAO because film thickness and effective surface area are depended on for high capacitance. As the metal electrode instead of electrolyte is injected into AAO, the film capacitor has advantages high voltage, wide operating temperature, and excellent frequency property. However, thin film capacitor made by electroless-plated Ni on AAO for full-filling into etched tunnel was limited from optimizing the deposition process so as to prevent open-through pore structures at the electroless plating owing to complicated morphological structure. In this paper, the electroless plating parameters are controlled by temperature in electroless Ni plating for reducing reaction rate. The Electrical properties with I-V and capacitance density were measured. By using nickel electrode, the capacitance density for the etched and Ni electroless plated films was 100 nFcm-2 while that for a film without any etch tunnel was 12.5 nFcm-2. Breakdown voltage and leakage current are improved, as the properties of metal deposition by electroless plating. The synthesized final nanostructures were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.83-91
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• 1995

A new method for preparation of thin nickel foam for Ni-MH battery was investigated. In this method, fine graphite powders of $1\mu\textrm{m}$～$2\mu\textrm{m}$ diameter were pasted into pores of thin polyurethane foam film in order to supply electric conducting seeds for nickel deposition by electroless plating reaction. After electroless plating, remaining polyurethane foam was removed chemically by organic solvent treatment and graphite particles also removed by ultrasonic cleaning. Porosity of formed nickel foam was about 85% During electroplating, porosity of the nickel foam decreased less than 5% up to $30\mu\textrm{m}$ coating thickness. And then it was electroplated and heat-treated to improve mechanical strength and ductility. Finally, thin nickel foam for Ni electrode of Ni-MH battery with 80% porosity and $350\mu\textrm{m}$～X$400\mu\textrm{m}$ thickness was obtained.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.174-177
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• 2010

We have developed an environment-friendly etching process, an alternative to the dichromic acid etching process, as a pretreatment of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) plastic for electroless plating. In order to plate ABS plastic in an electroless way, there should be fine holes on the surface of the ABS plastic to enhance mechanically the adhesion strength between the plastic surface and the plate. To make these holes, the surface was coated uniformly with dispersed chemical foaming agents in a mixture of environmentally friendly dispersant and solvent by the methods of dipping or direct application. The solvent seeps into just below the surface and distributes the chemical foaming agents uniformly beneath the surface. After drying off the surface, the surface was heated at a temperature well below the glass transition temperature of ABS plastic. By pyrolysis, the chemical foaming agents made fine holes on the surface. In order to discover optimum conditions for the formation of fine holes, the mixing ratio of the solvent, the dispersant and the chemical foaming agent were controlled. After the etching process, the surface was plated with nickel. We tested the adhesion strength between the ABS plastic and nickel plate by the cross-cutting method. The surface morphologies of the ABS plastic before and after the etching process were observed by means of a scanning electron microscope.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.269-274
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• 2014

Electroless plating process as a solution deposition method is a viable means of preparing conductive metal films on non-conducting substrates through chemical reactions. In the present study, the preparation and properties of electroless Ni-plating on flexible silicone rubber are described. The process has been performed using a conventional Ni(P) chemical bath. Additives and complexing agents such as ammonium chloride and glycine were added and the reaction pH was controlled by NaOH aqueous solution. Ni deposition rate and crystallinity have been found to vary with pH and temperature of the plating bath. It was shown that Ni-films having the high crystallinity, enhanced adhesion and optimum electric conductivity were formed uniformly on silicone rubber substrates under pH 7 at $70^{\circ}C$. The conductive Ni-plated silicone rubber showed a high electromagnetic interference shielding effect in the 400 MHz-1 GHz range.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.126-134
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• 2000

This study investigated the bath compositions and plating conditions and crystal structure used for achieving nickel-thallium-phosphorus deposits by means electroless plating. The electroless nickel-thallium-phosphorus deposits were achieved with a bath using sodium hypophosphite as the reducing agent and sodium citrate as the complexing agent. The depositing rate was 10.5mg.$cm^{2-1}$ .$hr^{-1 }$ from the optimistic bath composition, 0.1M nickel sulfate, 0.005M thallium sulfate, 0.2M sodium hypophosphite, and 0.05M sodium citrat and the recommended plating conditions, pH 5.5 and $90^{\circ}C$. The composition of alloy deposits determined by X-ray analysis (EDS) that the Thallium was increased with major increasing concentration of complexing agent and thallium ion in bath solution, it decreased according to the increasing concentrations of reduction agent in the bath solution, Bit Phosphorus showed a contrary to the thallium. It was observed from X-ray diffraction analysis, Scanning Electron Microscopy and Transmission Electron Microscopy. The crystalline structure of deposits was amorphous at the first deposited state but it was changed $Ni-T1-Ni_{5}$ $P_2$ polycrystalline when subjected to 1 hour heat treatment of more than $350^{\circ}C$. TEM observation demonstrated that the microstructure was identical to the result of the XRD at as deposited but it became $Ni-Tl-Ni_{5}$ $P_2$ polycrystalline when heated. And grain size was 10-50nm.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.335-343
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• 2004

Bath stabilizers in the electroless nickel(EN) plating solution are known to prevent sudden bath decomposition and extend its lifetime. Further, every stabilizer has a different role and function in EN solution and it influences the surface structure. In this study, the effects of various stabilizers on the deposition rate, surface morphology, deposition content of phosphor and hardness were investigated.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.632-638
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• 2014

We investigated the effects of DMAB (Borane dimethylamine complex, C2H10BN) in electroless Ni-B film with addition of DMAB as reducing agent for electroless Ni plating. The electroless Ni-B films were formed by electroless plating of near neutral pH (pH 6.5 and pH 7) at $50^{\circ}C$. The electroless plated Ni-B films were coated on screen printed Ag pattern/PET (polyethylene terephthalate). According to the increase of DMAB (from 0 to 1 mole), the deposition rate and the grain size of electroless Ni-B film increased and the boron (B) content also increased. In crystallinity of electroless Ni-B films, an amorphization reaction was enhanced in the formation of Ni-B film with an increasing content of DMAB; the Ni-B film with < 1 B at.% had a weak fcc structure with a nano crystalline size, and the Ni-B films with > 5 B at.% had an amorphous structure. In addition, the Ni-B film was selectively grown on the printed Ag paste layer without damage to the PET surface. From this result, we concluded that formation of electroless Ni-B film is possible by a neutral process (~green process) at a low temperature of $50^{\circ}C$.

• Composites Research
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.361-365
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• 2015

The influence of MWCNTs on fracture toughness properties of MWCNTs/Nickel-Pitch Fibers/epoxy composites (MWCNTs/Ni-PFs/epoxy) was investigated according to MWCNTs content. Nickel-Pitch-based carbon fibers (Ni-PFs) were prepared by electroless nickel-plating. The surface properties of Ni-PFs were determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS). The fracture toughness of MWCNTs/Ni-PFs/epoxy was assessed by critical stress intensity factor ($K_{IC}$) and critical strain energy release rate ($G_{IC}$). From the results, it was found that the fracture toughness properties of MWCNTs/Ni-PFs/epoxy were enhanced with increasing MWCNTs content, whereas the value decreased above 5 wt.%. MWCNTs content. This was probably considered that the MWCNTs entangled with each other in epoxy due to an excess of MWCNTs.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.153-163
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• 1985

In the electroless nickel plating bath which contained nickel sulfate, sodium hypophosphite, boric acid and triethanolamine, effect of their concentration on the rate of deposition was tested by gravimetric method and polarization method. The polarization method that polarize small range of voltage anodicaly and cathodicaly at the mixed potential in the electroless plating bath can calculate mixed current (depositing rate) from $i_{mp}=\frac {i}{\eta}\;\frac{RT}{nF}\;or\;i_{mp}=\frac{i}{\eta}\;\frac{1}{2.3}(\frac{b_a\;\;b_c}{b_c+b_a})$ Where $i_{mp}$ is the depositing current, i is the polarized current, ${\eta}$ is the polarized voltage, $b_a\;and\;b_c$ are the Tafel slop of anodic and cathodic polarization curves respectively. The calculated mixed current ($i_{mp}$) is proportional to the depositing rate obtained by gravimetric method and corresponded mostly to the real depositing rate by multifying supplementary constant. The polarization method can be used for founding inclination of reaction on various concentration of each composition. Decreasing or increasing concentration of triethanolaminc as a complexing agent , the depositing rate is decreased and when the bath contained 25-50mL/L of triethanoloamine, the depositing rate is increased. The depositing rate is increased with increasing the concentration of boric acid, and when the bath contained 0.5M of boric acid, the depositing rate is increased abruptly. The optimum composition of the electroless nickel bath was estimated 0.1M of nickel sulfate, 0.25M of sodium hypophosphite, 0.5M of boric acid, and 25-50mL/L of triethanalamine.