Optimization of mass deposition and surface roughness for ternary Ni-Cu-P electroless coating using VIKOR method

Abstract

Electroless Ni–Cu–P coating was synthesised on pure Copper (99.9%) substrate in an alkaline media. The present study deals with the analysis of the variation of ‘Average Mass Deposited per unit Area’ and ‘Surface Roughness (R_a)’ with three parameters namely Ni-ion concentration, Cu-ion and reducing agent concentration of the chemical bath. VIKOR (VlseKriterijumskaOptimizacija I KompromisnoResenje;in Serbian) has been considered here as Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method to optimise the input parameters. The deposited mass per unit area (gm cm⁻²) and Surface Roughness (μm) are considered as response variables for the statistical analysis and optimization technique; whereas Ni-ion concentration, Cu-ion concentration and reducing agent concentration in the chemical bath are considered as different variable input process parameters. The results of the experiments are obtained and using the VIKOR method, compromise ranking of the different parametric values is obtained and an optimum combination of the parameters is suggested. The weightages of the different criterion has been calculated by Analytical Hierarchy Process. Therefore, the present study gives optimised input parameters for two conflicting output responses with the use of Multi Criteria Decision Making VIKOR.

Keywords:

• Electroless coating
• Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)
• Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM)
• Response Surface Method (RSM) and VIKOR