The effects of such bath conditions as reducing agent concentration, Ni salt concentration and plating temperature on the rate of electroless Ni plating by the reducing agent permeation method were examined.
At the initial nucleus formation stage, it was supposed that the mutual diffusion of BH
4- and Cl
- through the membrane was the rate determining step and the initial nucleus formation rate was proportional to the 0.2 power of NaBH
4 concentration and NiCl
2 concentration. The activation energies of the diffusion coefficients of both anious were calculated to be 4.57kJ/mol.
At the Ni growth stage, it was estimated that in addition to the nutual anion diffusion, Ni diffusion was also the rate determining step.
The rate of Ni growth was proportional to the 0.3 power of the NaBH
4 concentration and the 0.7 power of the NiCl
2 concentration. The activation energy of the rate constant was calculated to be 3.90kJ/mol. The rate of Ni growth can be controlled by these kinetic parameters.
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