Summary for electroless gold plating Discussion
Non-electrolytic, non-cyanide gold plating is the focus of this thread, where Anil Kumar asks how to metallize a porous polymer with an ultrathin gold layer of about 50 nm to create an electrode surface. He specifically wants to avoid cyanide solutions and electrolytic plating, and wonders whether a gold chloride plus NaBH4 reduction/precipitation approach could work, similar to some platinum chemistries. In reply, the answerer says suppliers spent decades developing workable electroless gold plating processes and notes that such a process is available commercially, citing Technic as one source. The practical advice is that rather than trying to reinvent the chemistry, it may be easier to purchase an established electroless gold process from a supplier.
Q. I wish to plate a porous polymer with a very thin layer of gold. Actually, the layer would be in the nanometre range (~50nm thickness), so it is in fact metallizing the surface of the polymer. The intention is to provide an electrode layer on the polymer. I wish to avoid the use of cyanide solutions and electrolytic processes, and want to know if it is possible to achieve it using a gold chloride-NaBH4 reduction/precipitation process. A similar method exists for platinum, using a solution of a platinum complex and NaBH4/LiBH4. What would be the chemistry involved, and could anyone suggest a method, please?
Thanks.
Anil Kumar
Engineer – Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India
2004
A. Hello, Anil.
Suppliers worked very hard for decades to establish a workable electroless gold plating process. It may be available from multiple sources, but one source I know it is available from is Technic. You don’t need to repeat their development efforts if you don’t want to, you can just buy the process.
Ted Mooney, P.E.
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2004
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