Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 February 2013
Deposition of Ni3P nano-scale layer on B4C nanoparticles in fourcontents of sodium hypophosphite as reducing agent including 5, 10, 15 and 30 g/l viaelectroless coating were done to investigate the effect of reducing agent content on thecoating thickness of deposited Ni3P. The bath pH and temperature was 5.5 and 85°C, respectively and the coating time was 25 min. The powders were characterized bytransmission electron microscopy (TEM) and the phases present were revealed by X-raydiffraction (XRD). Nickel and phosphorous contents of the coatings were measured byinductively coupled plasma analysis (ICP). The results revealed that by increasing thereducing agent content from 5 g/l to 30 g/l the average coating thickness increased from19 nm to 28 nm. Although the increasing effect of adding sodium hypophosphite content waspreserved, there is a critical amount for sodium hypophosphite content to increase thecoating thickness.