Electroplating of nickel from acetate based bath – Hull Cell studies

Electroplating of nickel onto steel substrates from an electroplating bath containing nickel acetate, nickel chloride, boric acid and acetic acid has been investigated under different levels of operating conditions such as bath composition, current density and temperature. A detailed study has been made on the influence of these variables by measuring cathodic current efficiency and throwing power for various baths. Deposition parameters have been optimised using Hull Cell experiments. From potentiodynamic polarisation studies on Ni deposits it was revealed that E corr moved towards the more negative direction. It is inferred from this fact that there is cathodic control of the corrosion reaction. The R t value increases with increasing deposit thickness and the corresponding C dl value is decreased.