ELECTROLESS NICKEL PLATING ON ABS PLASTIC BY USING ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY CHEMICALS

Abstract

In this study, electroless nickel (EN) plating on acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) engineering plastic by using environmentally friendly chemicals were studied. Electroless plating is a fundamental step in the metal plating on the plastic. This step makes the plastic conductive and makes it possible to a homogeneous and hard plating without using any hazardous and unfriendly chemical such as palladium, tin, etc. In the industry there are many distinct chemical materials both catalysts and activation solutions for the electroless bath which is one of the most important parts of the process. In this study the effects of plating bath compositions, plating time and sand paper size were investigated on electroless nickel plating. Experiments were carried out with 400, 800, 1500 grit sandpaper by applying sand attrition process and at 75°C, 85°C, and 95°C bath temperatures with 20, 40, 60 minutes of deposition time. The surface morphology and the amount of deposit analysis were performed by Fischerscope X-Ray XDL-B System, X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Due to the results of experiments and analysis, the nickel plating on ABS plastic was succeeded with two different bath compositions. According to the results, the best plating on ABS plastic was obtained at maximum plating thickness as 2.47 μm with plating time as 60 min and at 95°C plating bath temperature by using 1500 grit sandpaper. Nickel plating was better with Bath 1 (6.2 μm) than Bath 2 (1.42 μm) on activated surfaces of ABS which were activated with 1500 grit sandpaper.