Fabrication of PET Fabric/Ni-Fe-B Alloy Composite through a Electroless Plating Process with a Novel Activiting Method

Abstract

Electroless plating of Ni-Fe-B alloy on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fabrics with a novel activiting method was investigated. The activiting steps were immersion the samples to a methanol solution (10 mL) containing 2 g nickel acetate for 30 min, then immersed in an other methanol solution (10 mL) containing 1g potassium borohydride to adequate reaction. Low-cost activator was gained by potassium borohydride reduce nickel acetate on the PET fabric surface. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to characterize morphology, structure, composition of the activated layer and Ni-Fe-B coating on the PET fabric. The results indicate that Ni-Fe-B alloy deposits by the electroless deposition were continuous and uniform.