Electroless deposition of nickel–cobalt–phosphorus nanoalloy

Abstract

Electroless plating have unique metallurgical characteristics, and the deposits can be made onto a wide range of substrates, including both metallic and non‐metallic surfaces. In this paper, the authors have reported on the development of new bath formulation for getting Ni–Co–P nanoalloy deposit and optimised bath concentration and operating conditions. The alloy deposit contains 10·59%Co in the Ni–P matrix. There is an increase in hardness and corrosion resistance of the deposit with the incorporation of Co. Furthermore, from the XRD measurements of the deposits, it was found that the alloy is nanocrystalline in nature, and the particle size is around 37–45 nm. Atomic force microscopy results show that the height of the particles is in nanosize, and roughness of the surface is within 3 nm.

Keywords:

• Alloy
• Metal coatings
• AFM
• X‐ray diffraction
• Amorphous structures