Electroless Plating – Fundamentals & Applications

Electroless Plating Book Details

Electroless Plating – Fundamentals & Applications, edited by Glenn O. Mallory and Juan B. Hajdu, is an electroless plating book for readers who want a serious reference on autocatalytic metal deposition. The Finishing.com record identifies it as a 1990 hardcover from Noyes Publications, with 538 pages. The visible book table lists ISBN 0936569077, while older marketplace links associated with the page use ISBN or identifier 0815512775. Buyers should compare both numbers when searching because technical-book listings can be inconsistent.

Electroless plating deserves its own reference because it is not simply electroplating without a power supply. In an electroless process, deposition depends on controlled chemical reduction at a catalytic surface. That means bath chemistry, stabilizers, reducing agents, surface activation, contamination control, temperature, pH, loading, agitation, and deposit growth can matter in different ways than they do in conventional electrolytic plating. A strong reference helps the reader understand the chemistry before trying to solve production defects by trial and error.

The editors are a major reason this title matters. Ted Mooney describes Glenn Mallory as having served as V.P. of R&D for Electroless Nickel at Allied-Kelite and as a leading figure in electroless nickel technology. He describes Dr. Juan Hajdu as having spent more than 30 years with Enthone, culminating in a V.P. of Technology position. That background gives the book practical weight: it was edited by people connected to the industrial development, application, and control of electroless processes, not only to academic discussion.

The scope is broad. Ted’s review notes that the volume includes chapters by the editors plus contributions from roughly two dozen important industry figures. The topics include fundamentals, bath composition, troubleshooting, deposit properties, equipment, testing, surface preparation, engineering applications, electronics applications, alloys, and composites. For Finishing.com readers, that is exactly the useful range. Most electroless problems are not solved by one fact; they require connecting substrate preparation, activation, bath control, deposit requirements, inspection, and service conditions.

Electroless nickel is probably the first process many readers associate with this book, but the work is not limited to nickel. The old Finishing.com review also mentions electroless copper, plating on plastics, electroless gold, electroless platinum, electroless silver, and electroless cobalt. That wider coverage matters because electroless deposition is used in many different settings: wear resistance, corrosion protection, solderability, electronics, printed circuit work, nonconductive substrates, dimensional build-up, uniform coating of complex geometry, and specialized precious-metal applications.

A practical electroless plating book is especially useful for troubleshooting. Common failures can include skip plating, poor adhesion, roughness, pitting, nodules, plate-out, bath instability, slow rate, excessive rate, poor phosphorus control, discoloration, porosity, or inconsistent deposit thickness. The cause may be cleaning, activation, surface contamination, bath age, metallic contamination, organic contamination, incorrect pH, temperature error, stabilizer imbalance, excessive loading, inadequate filtration, or problems in rinsing and handling. A reference that combines fundamentals with troubleshooting gives readers a better diagnostic path.

The book is also valuable for coating selection. Electroless nickel, for example, is often chosen for uniform thickness on complex parts, corrosion resistance, wear resistance, solderability, or post-bake hardness, but different phosphorus levels and alloy systems behave differently. Electroless copper may be central to plastics and electronics work. Precious-metal electroless deposits raise different questions of cost, activation, selectivity, and reliability. The broader lesson is that electroless plating is a family of technologies, not a single finish.

There are cautions. A 1990 reference should not be treated as the last word on today’s chemical restrictions, wastewater requirements, worker exposure rules, PFAS concerns, nickel regulations, printed-circuit materials, electronics specifications, or supplier-specific bath controls. Readers should use this book for fundamentals and technical context, then verify any production decision against current supplier data, SDS documents, customer specifications, environmental permits, and experienced professional judgment.

For someone shopping for Electroless Plating – Fundamentals & Applications, condition and edition matching matter. Confirm the title, editors, publisher, year, page count, ISBN, and cover image before buying. If a listing uses 0815512775 rather than 0936569077, inspect the listing carefully rather than assuming it is wrong; older book pages and marketplace systems sometimes use different identifiers for the same or closely related listing. This electroless plating book remains a strong candidate for readers who need depth on electroless chemistry, shop control, troubleshooting, and applications.

Related Finishing.com Resources

• Finishing.com search: electroless plating – Search Finishing.com for related electroless plating discussions.
• Finishing.com search: electroless nickel – Find discussions about electroless nickel, deposit properties, and troubleshooting.
• Electroless Nickel Stripping FAQ – A related Finishing.com FAQ connected to electroless nickel rework and stripping.

External Resources

• WorldCat search for Electroless Plating Mallory Hajdu – Library catalog search for matching records and editions.
• Google Books search for Electroless Plating Mallory Hajdu – Book search for alternate records, citations, or edition details.
• Open Library ISBN record – Bibliographic record matched by ISBN and reviewed during the deep research pass.