Effect of bath temperature on electroplating of nickel on a copper substrate

ABSTRACT

Nickel electroplating is known to be industrially effective for enhancing various substrate properties. In the present work, nickel coatings were developed on copper substrates by electroplating using standard nickel plating solution at various electrolyte bath temperatures ranging from 40 ± 2°C to 60 ± 2°C in steps of 10°C. Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) were used to study the composition, phase structure and morphology of the coatings. The coatings were also analysed for hardness and porosity, and process current efficiency was measured. The electrolyte bath temperature has a profound effect on the nature of the developed nickel coatings, and is observed to have an impact on the surface morphology, crystallographic direction, and hardness, as well as deposition current efficiency.

KEYWORDS:

• Electroplating
• XRD
• SEM
• coating thickness
• density
• microhardness
• porosity

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Management, SJEC, and Mangaluru for providing the Seed Money Grant for the project work during 2023–2024 and the Central Research Facility (CRF), NITK, and Surathkal for providing the facilities to carry out materials testing and characterisation studies at their research facility centre.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

• Canute Sherwin: Conception, experimental design, carrying out measurements ([email protected])

• Dayanand M Goudar: Carrying out measurements ([email protected])

• Julfikar Haider: Formal analysis, Manuscript composition ([email protected])

• Deesy G Pinto: Manuscript composition ([email protected])

• Raju.K: Manuscript composition ([email protected])