Low-Phosphorus Electroless Nickel-Coated Carbon Fibers

Abstract

Carbon fibers have been coated with a nickelphosphorus (NiP) film using an electroless plating process, with sodium hypophosphite as a reducing agent in an alkaline bath. The morphology, elemental composition and phases in the coating layer of the carbon fibers were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. The results revealed that a continuous, uniform and low-phosphorous nickel coating was deposited on the surface of the carbon fibers for 25 min at pH 8.0, plating bath temperature 90 °C. The as-deposited coatings with approximately 5.8 wt.% phosphorus were found to consist of microcrystalline phases.