The chemistry of nickel electroplating solutions

Abstract

This paper describes work to determine the nature of the cationic species present in the type of nickel solutions used for commercial electroplating and electroforming. The three nickel salts examined – sulphate, chloride and sulphamate – are the ones most commonly used in these processes.

Despite the fact that nickel plating was first invented in 1837 and has become an extremely useful part of high technology applications the nature of the species in solution has never been investigated.

The purpose of this study is to discover if the differences in deposit properties – particularly internal stress - produced by the three types of nickel salt is determined by the structure of the cationic species and the effect, if any, that the different anionic species have upon the structure of the nickel ions in aqueous solution.