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-----Non-electrolytic, non-cyanide process for gold plating of polymer surface
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 KumarEngineer - 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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