Preparation of tungsten base composite powder by electroless nickel plating

Abstract

Fine tungsten powder with an average size of 8 μm was coated by electroless nickel plating with hydrazine and sodium hypophosphite reducing agents to obtain Ni and Ni–P coatings, respectively. The influence of process parameters such as temperature, pH and time of electroless plating was investigated. As coated composite powders were characterised by energy dispersive spectrometer analysis and scanning electron microscopy. It was found that, high homogeneity Ni/Ni–P coatings are deposited around the tungsten particles. Also it was shown that deposited mass on the powders increases as the temperature and pH of bath increase, but with different deposition rates depending on coating type. Furthermore, other results indicate that at higher pH values, the P content in the Ni–P coating decreases, leading less impurity in the final composite powders.