Projects Day Competition 2012 (Cat 1 Experimental Research)

1. Alternative Method To Prevent Rust – Electroless Plating Group 1-025 Projects Day Competition 2012 (Cat 1 Experimental Research) Derrick Fung 2A407 John Leong 2A412 Sean Teh 2A420 Zhang Zhenglin 2A431

3. Rationale • Many metallic items around us gets rusty and scratched easily • The most common way of removing rust is electro plating ∴ We want to find an alternative method to prevent rust and surface scratches • Nickel salts is also used because it is the most commonly used in similar experiments and by industrial companies

4. To find out the relationship between the mass of nickel sulfate in the solution and the concentration of rust collected from the final plated product • To find out the relationship between the temperature of heat treatment to that of surface hardness of the final plated product

5. Hypothesis

6. Variables

7. Materials (Equipment/Apparatus) • Micro-pipette • Colorimeter • Hot plate • Beakers • Thermometer • Voltage meter • Micro-hardness tester (to obtain ↑ precision for surface hardness)

8. Materials (Chemicals) • Nickel sulfate • Sodium hypophosphite • Aqueous ammonia • Sodium carbonate • Sulfuric acid • Hydrochloric Acid

10. Methodology (Experiment Process) Electroless plating solution preparation *Note that the above recipe is for 500 ml of plating solution

11. Methodology (Experimental Process) Plating process

12. Methodology (Experimental Process) Passivation

13. Photos from our experiment process

14. Metal Pieces after solution and before passivation • Metal Pieces after solution and passivation

15. Methodology (Collecting Data) Concentration of Rust (1)

16. Soil Experiment to test for rust

17. Colorimeter FerroVer method

18. Graph Data Analysis (1)

19. Graph Data Analysis (1) *Solution has been diluted 10,000 times with deionised water

20. Conclusion for (1) • The higher the mass of nickel sulfate, the higher the concentration of rust collected from the metal specimen Discussion * Initially we expected our hypothesis to be correct but it was the opposite. We believe that the results clearly does not support our hypothesis mainly due to the stability of our solution (elaborated in LIMITATIONS), the amount of sodium hypophosphite was not of equal ratio to nickel sulfate, without such a stabiliser, our solution did not plate well

21. Limitations • Time (slow displacement before actual plating) • Stability of solution • Funds & lab safety (prolonged testing and more tedious process, could have been more stable) • Conditions for reaction (small temperature range, large pH adjustments) • Acid may dissolve an excess of iron if not monitored or too strong, may be uneven as well

22. Methodology (Collecting Data) Surface hardness (2)

23. Surface hardness analysis • Tip of analytical instrument • Vickers diamond pyramid • Knoopelongated diamond pyramid • The diamond applies force to the surface of the metal specimen and create a minute hole in the specimen • After that, by measuring the length between the two diagonal points on the square base of the pyramid, the micro surface hardness of the metal specimen can be determined

24. Photos of metal plates that undergone heat treatment Metal plate specimens after solution and heat treatment

25. Graph Data Analysis (2)

26. Graph Data Analysis (2) *The strength of the diamond pyramid pressing is 0.098 N

27. Conclusion for (2) • The higher the temperature of heat treatment, the harder the surface hardness of the plated metal specimen The data clearly supports our hypothesis well, we observe a very small STDEV range and a rather smooth incline, R2 value is also very close to 1, showing high precision Discussion

28. Further Exploration • Comparing to a conventional electro-plated optimum that we will plate ourselves and subject it to the same tests • Try increasing nickel sulfate concentration in the plating solution again and see how much rust will be formed within a specific period of time but this time with a 1:1 ratio of sodium hypophosphite to obtain a stable solution Extension

29. References • O'Mallory, G. (1990-2012). Electroless plating: Fundamentals and applications. (VP of Technology American Society of Civil Engineers). • Artistic Plating Company, Inc. Milwaukee, WI 5321. (2012). Electroless nickel plating a guide. Retrieved from http://www.artisticplating.net/pdf-files/metal-finishing/Nickel Plating/Electroless Nickel Plating - A Guide.pdf • H. Nakano, T. Itabashi, and H. Akahoshi, J.ElectrolessDeposited Cobalt-Tungsten-Boron Capping Barrier Metal on Damascene Copper Interconnection, Electrochem. Soc. 152, C163 (2005), DOI:10.1149/1.1860512 • Eugene J. O’Sullivan. (2011). Electroless deposition. In Z. Nagy (Ed.), Electrochemistry Encyclopedia IBM T.J. Watson Research Center P.O. Box 218, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA : IBM Research Division. Retrieved from http://electrochem.cwru.edu/encycl/art-d02-eless-dep.htm

30. References • Gordon England Metallurgist Consultants. (n.d.).Microhardness test. Retrieved from http://www.gordonengland.co.uk/hardness/microhardness.htm • NACE International. (2010). Corrosion artifacts (oxidizing solutions). Retrieved from http://events.nace.org/library/corrosion/Artifacts/oxidizing.asp • Helmut Fisher GMBH. (n.d.). Hardness measurement instruments. Retrieved from http://www.helmut-fischer.de/indexCountry.asp?CountryID=31&LanguageID=2&parentID=1901586

32. Any questions?