Electroless plating of nickel on carbon nanotubes film

For carbon nanotubes to be used for electronic application, nanotubes would need to achieve high interfacial adhesion with metal. In this paper, chemical vapor deposited carbon nanotubes have been successfully coated with nickel by electroless plating method. Ni plates were used as substrates as well as catalyst provider for the growth of carbon nanotubes. Without dispersing the grown nanotubes from their substrate, electroless plating process was performed directly on the as-grown carbon nanotubes. In order to improve nanotubes wettability to Ni, nanotubes were immerged in solution of SnCl₂/HCl for sensitization and soaking in solution of PdCl₂/HCl for activation. Upon completing the pretreatment processes, the nanotube films were electroless plated with Ni by dipping into plating solution of NiSO₄.6H₂O/NaH₂PO₂.2H₂ O/sodium eleconate/NH₄Cl for 5, 10, 15 or 20 mins. The morphology and cross section of the electroless plated nanotubes films were observed and analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was found that uniform layer of Ni was coated on all nanotubes and the thickness of that Ni layer increased proportionally with plating time