Methods and systems for electroless plating a first metal onto a second metal in a molten salt bath, and surface pretreatments therefore

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11834746-B2
Application number	US-202217962598-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 10, 2022
Priority date	Jun 14, 2021
Publication date	Dec 5, 2023
Grant date	Dec 5, 2023

Abstract

Systems and methods for electroless plating a first metal onto a second metal in a molten salt bath including: a bath vessel holding a dry salt mixture including a dry salt medium and a dry salt medium of the first metal, and without the reductant therein, the dry salt mixture configured to be heated to form a molten salt bath; and the second metal is configured to be disposed in the molten salt bath and receive a pure coating of the first metal thereon by electroless plating in the molten salt bath, wherein the second metal is more electronegative than the first metal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for anionic etching a second metal without use of a reductant, the method comprising:
providing a bath vessel holding a dry salt mixture, the dry salt mixture comprising a dry salt medium and without the reductant therein;
heating the dry salt mixture to form a molten salt bath;
disposing a cathode in the bath vessel;
disposing the second metal in the molten salt bath as an anode;
coupling a power supply to the anode and the cathode, wherein the power supply produces a current flow that causes etching of the second metal to produce an etched second metal; and then
electroless plating a pure coating of a first metal which is Ni onto the etched second metal in another molten salt bath comprising the dry salt medium and a dry salt medium of the first metal, and without a reductant therein, wherein the second metal is more electronegative than the first metal, and the second metal is disposed in the another molten salt bath and receives a pure, uniform coating of the Ni first metal thereon in a single step by the electroless plating in the another molten salt bath.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dry salt medium comprises a dry salt medium eutectic, and the dry salt medium eutectic and the dry salt medium of the first metal are heated to melt the eutectic and form a molten salt eutectic bath for the electroless plating.

Assignees

• Cons Nuclear Security Llc

Inventors

• Freiderich Melissa Ensor

Classifications

• C23C18/31 Primary

  Coating with metals · CPC title

• B05C3/005

  incorporating means for heating or cooling the liquid or other fluent material (B05C11/1042 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B05C3/02

  the work being immersed in the liquid or other fluent material · CPC title

• C23C18/1619

  Apparatus for electroless plating · CPC title

• C23C18/1628

  Specific elements or parts of the apparatus · CPC title