Introduction to Electroless Gold Plating |Chemical Gold Plating

Electroless gold is suitable for metal, resin, plastic, ABS, foamed plastic, recycled plastic, glass, crystal, ceramics, acrylic, wood, cement, phosphorus magnesium, and other materials. It can be widely used in various surface decoration industries such as automobiles, electrical appliances, handicrafts, computers, mobile phones, jewelry, and high-end furniture. A variety of new decoration industries can be born from this.

The principle of electroless plating

Electroless plating is a method of obtaining metal alloys by using redox reactions on plated parts with catalytic surfaces without electricity. Compared with electroplating, chemical plating technology has the characteristics of uniform plating, small pinholes, no need for DC power supply equipment, the ability to deposit on non-conductors, and certain special properties. In addition, due to the low waste discharge, low environmental pollution, and low cost of electroless plating technology, electroplating has gradually replaced electroplating in many fields and has become an environmentally friendly surface treatment process. In the United States, Britain, Japan, Germany, and other countries, their industrial output value is increasing at an annual rate of 15%. It is widely used in machinery, electronics, plastics, molds, metallurgy, petrochemicals, ceramics, hydraulics, aerospace, and other industrial sectors. It is a promising high-tech technology.
Electroless plating is a new type of metal surface treatment technology. This technology has attracted increasing attention due to its simple process, energy saving, and environmental protection. Electroless plating has a wide range of applications, and the gold plating layer is uniform and decorative. In terms of protective performance, it can improve the corrosion resistance and service life of the product; in terms of functionality, it can improve the wear resistance, conductivity, lubrication performance, and other special functions of the workpiece, thus becoming a development of surface treatment technology around the world.
Electroless plating is a method that does not require electricity and is based on the principle of redox reaction, using a strong reducing agent in a solution containing metal ions to reduce metal ions into metal and deposit them on the surface of various materials to form a dense coating. Commonly used solutions for chemical plating: chemical silver plating, nickel plating, copper plating, cobalt plating, nickel-phosphorus plating solution, nickel-phosphorus boron plating solution, etc.
At present, the theories that have been proposed for the autocatalytic deposition reaction of electroless nickel plating using hypophosphite as the reducing agent include “atomic hydrogen state theory”, “hydride theory” and “electrochemical theory”. Among these theories, the most widely recognized is the “atomic hydrogen state theory.”