The Effect of Brightener Additions on the Relation between Porosity and Plating Conditions for Gold Electrodeposits

Summary

A detailed study has been made of the effect of additions of nickel ions to an acid citrate gold bath, and of sulphated castor oil to an alkaline bath with free cyanide on the porosity of gold deposited from the baths. As most of the bath operating conditions have themselves a marked influence on porosity, the effects of the brighteners were studied in terms of the modification they made to the relations between porosity and other bath factors. It was generally found that under most conditions deposits from the bright baths were less porous than those from the same bath without the brightener, but operated under identical conditions. There were a few exceptions to this rule.