Environmentally friendly process for nickel electroplating of ABS

Abstract

Nickel electroplating of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic has been achieved successfully without any chromium or palladium pretreatment. Once the ABS is coated with polypyrrole (PPy), the sample may be electroplated. The process is fast, economic and involves three stages. Firstly, chemical deposition of PPy on ABS, secondly, copper deposition and finally nickel electroplating. A homogenous and adherent PPy has been synthesized chemically on ABS plate by using pyrrole as monomer and iron (III) chloride as oxidant. Copper and nickel were deposited galvanostatically from industrial plating baths. The metallic coatings were homogeneous and the adherence was estimated at 100%. The thickness of copper and nickel depend on the electrolysis time. As the current density increases, the Cu and Ni thickness raises. This result was confirmed from SEM characterization and RX map. The Ni coating is characterized by a globular structure with globules of different sizes. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis shows the presence of Ni with some amount of carbon and oxygen due to the nickel oxides and contaminant from the bath solution.