Study on process of electroless nickel plating for graphite powder

Conductive filler is the main raw material of high-performance electromagnetic shielding material. Following the pretreatment of oxidation with solution containing sulfuric acid and K2Cr2O7, sensitization with solution containing SnCl2 and activation with solution containing PdCl2 in sequence, electroless nickel plating was carried out on graphite powder. A uniform alloy deposit with high nickel and low phosphorus was thus obtained on graphite powder with a diameter of 5 - 20 μm, which contains nickel over 90% by weight, thereby solving the difficult problem of electroless nickel plating on graphite powder.The influences of each component content in plating bath, temperature and stirring speed on electroless nickel plating were discussed. The graphite powder treated by the electroless nickel plating process mentioned above has good conductivity and electromagnetic shielding performance, and so can be used as good conductive filler of electromagnetic shielding.