Electroless deposition

Electroless deposition (ED) or electroless plating is defined as the autocatalytic process through which metals and metal alloys are deposited onto conductive and nonconductive surfaces. These nonconductive surfaces include plastics, ceramics, and glass etc., which can then become decorative, anti-corrosive, and conductive depending on their final functions. Electroplating unlike electroless deposition only deposits on other conductive or semi-conductive materials when a external current is applied. Electroless deposition deposits metals onto 2D and 3D structures such as screws, nanofibers, and carbon nanotubes, unlike other plating methods such as Physical Vapor Deposition ( PVD), Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD), and electroplating, which are limited to 2D surfaces. Commonly the surface of the substrate is characterized via pXRD, SEM-EDS, and XPS which relay set parameters based their final funtionality. These parameters are referred to a Key Performance Indicators crucial for a researcher’ or company's purpose. Electroless deposition continues to rise in importance within the microelectronic industry, oil and gas, and aerospace industry. Electroless deposition was serendipitously discovered by Charles Wurtz in 1846. Wurtz noticed the nickel-phosphorus bath when left sitting on the benchtop spontaneously decomposed and formed a black powder. 70 years later François Auguste Roux rediscovered the electroless deposition process and patented it in United States as the ‘Process of producing metallic deposits. Roux deposited nickel-posphorous (Ni-P) electroless deposition onto a substrate but his invention went uncommercialized. In 1946 the process was re-discovered by Abner Brenner and Grace E. Riddell while working at the National Bureau of Standards. They presented their discovery at the 1946 Convention of the American Electroplaters' Society (AES); a year later, at the same conference they proposed the term "electroless" for the process and described optimized bath formulations, that resulted in a patent.