Efficacy of reducing agent contacting pattern in Ag-SOEP electroless plating baths

Abstract

Targeting upon the efficacy of bulk and drop wise contacting mode of hydrazine reducing agent, this work addresses Ag-SOEP ELP baths for porous Ag-ceramic composite membrane preparation. The investigations involved the assessment of both membrane and plating characteristics such as conversion, efficiency, PPD, MLI, average plating rate at various values of total plating time. The experimentation inferred that bulk mode of hydrazine contacting Ag-SOEP ELP baths is the optimal choice. Further, cost comparison was also conducted to differentiate the cost of the membranes with those available commercially. It has been found that the electroless fabricated membranes are significantly inexpensive than the available commercial membranes.

Keywords:

• Silver membrane
• Electroless plating
• Bulk
• Drop
• Hydrazine
• Cost

Additional information

Funding

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India, New Delhi, provided a grant to conduct the research work reported in this article. Hypothesis, technical views and supporting statements in this article correspond to the views of the authors but not the funding agency.