Electroless nickel-phosphor plating process on surface of quartz optical fiber

Quartz optical fibers are of great significance in many fields. For example,they can be used to fabricate strain sensors and temperature sensors.If the surface of optical fibers is metal-coated by the electroless plating method, the measuring precision and stability of the optical fiber sensors can be improved remarkably, additionally the life-span of sensors can be prolonged.In this work, an electroless nickel-phosphor plating process for optical fibers was presented.The influences of the content of NaH 2PO 2·H 2O, bath pH value and temperature and the plating deposition rate on the quality of the plating coatings were studied with orthogonal testing.The results indicated that the content of NaH 2PO 2·H 2O was the key factor, which influenced the adhesion force of the plating coatings.The nickel-phosphor plating bath presented in this work possessed excellent stability and the plating deposition rate could be accelerated.Using the process described in this work, nickel-phosphor coatings with great brightness and high adhesion force can be prepared successfully.Optimum conditions were: NiSO 4 30 g·L -1, NaH 2PO 2·H 2O 20 g·L -1, C 3H 6O 3 4 ml·L -1, Na 2CO 3 3 g·L -1, NH 4Cl 4 g·L -1, saccharin 1 mg·L -1, temperature 84 ℃, pH 4.6.