Quantum mechanical approach for electroless plating process

Abstract

A high speed electroless nickel plating bath has been developed with p-tolyl thiourea and diphenyl thiourea as accelerators for electroless nickel plating process. The acceleration effect of the compounds was determined by weight gain and electrochemical method. Both compounds improved the rate of deposition to considerable extent by adsorbing strongly on the steel surface. The adsorption of the accelerators was found to obey Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The Arrhenius plot and quantum mechanical parameters further justified the impressive performance of accelerators through their effective adsorption on metal surface.