Environmentally friendly nickel electroplating compositions and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10458032-B2
Application number	US-201815947949-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 9, 2018
Priority date	Jun 15, 2017
Publication date	Oct 29, 2019
Grant date	Oct 29, 2019

Abstract

Environmentally friendly nickel electroplating compositions enable the electroplating of nickel deposits which are bright and uniform and inhibit corrosion of gold layers deposited on the bright and uniform nickel deposits. The environmentally friendly nickel electroplating compositions can be used to electroplate bright and uniform nickel deposits on various substrates over a wide current density range.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A nickel electroplating composition comprising one or more sources of nickel ions, one or more sources of acetate ions, sodium saccharinate and one or more N-benzylpyridinium sulfonate compounds having formula:

wherein R 1 and R 2 are independently chosen from hydrogen, hydroxyl and (C 1 -C 4 ) alkyl.

2. The nickel electroplating composition of claim 1 , wherein the one or more N-benzylpyridinium sulfonate compounds is in amounts of at least 0.5 ppm.

3. The nickel electroplating composition of claim 1 , wherein the N-benzylpyridinium sulfonate compound is N-benzylpyridinium-3-sulfonate.

4. The nickel electroplating composition of claim 1 , further comprising one or more sources of chloride.

5. The nickel electroplating composition of claim 1 , further comprising one or more surfactants.

6. The nickel electroplating composition of claim 1 , wherein the nickel electroplating composition has a pH of 2 to 6.

7. A method of electroplating nickel metal on a substrate comprising:
a) providing the substrate;
b) contacting the substrate with a nickel electroplating composition comprising one or more sources of nickel ions, one or more sources of acetate ions, sodium saccharinate and one or more N-benzylpyridinium sulfonate compounds having formula:

wherein R 1 and R 2 are independently chosen from hydrogen, hydroxyl and (C 1 -C 4 ) alkyl; and
c) applying an electric current to the nickel electroplating composition and substrate to electroplate a bright and uniform nickel deposit adjacent the substrate.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the electric current has a current density of at least 0.1 ASD.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the one or more N-benzylpyridinium sulfonate compounds are in amounts of at least 0.5 ppm.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the N-benzylpyridinium sulfonate compound is N-benzylpyridinium-3-sulfonate.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the nickel electroplating composition further comprises one or more sources of chloride.

12. The method of claim 7 , wherein the nickel electroplating composition further comprises one or more surfactants.

13. The method of claim 7 , wherein the nickel electroplating composition has a pH of 2 to 6.

14. The method of claim 7 , further comprising depositing a gold or gold alloy layer adjacent the bright and uniform nickel deposit.

Assignees

• Rohm & Haas Elect Mat

Inventors

• Lipschutz Michael

Classifications

• C25D3/18 Primary

  Heterocyclic compounds · CPC title

• C25D3/12 Primary

  of nickel or cobalt · CPC title

• C25D5/627

  Electroplating characterised by the visual appearance of the layers, e.g. colour, brightness or mat appearance · CPC title

• C25D5/12

  at least one layer being of nickel or chromium · CPC title