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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ

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Non-electrolytic, non-cyanide process for gold plating of polymer surface

Q. I wish to plate a porous polymer with a very thin layer of gold. Actually, the layer would be in the nanometre range (~50nm thickness), so it is in fact metallizing the surface of the polymer. The intention is to provide an electrode layer on the polymer. I wish to avoid the use of cyanide solutions and electrolytic processes, and want to know if it is possible to achieve it using a gold chloride-NaBH4 reduction/precipitation process. A similar method exists for platinum, using a solution of a platinum complex and NaBH4/LiBH4. What would be the chemistry involved, and could anyone suggest a method, please?

Thanks.

Anil Kumar
Engineer - Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India
2004

A. Hello, Anil.

Suppliers worked very hard for decades to establish a workable electroless gold plating process. It may be available from multiple sources, but one source I know it is available from is Technic. You don't need to repeat their development efforts if you don't want to, you can just buy the process.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2004

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