Electroless plating and electroplating are two different metal surface treatment methods.
Electroless plating is a process that directly produces metal ions in a solution through chemical reactions and deposits them on the surface of the workpiece to form a coating. The principle is: metal accumulation in aqueous solution generally proceeds as follows: M2+ + 2e- → M, that is, there are two positively charged metal ions M in the solution. When it accepts two electrons, it transforms into a metal atom M, and when appropriate Under certain conditions, it accumulates on the surface of the workpiece to form a coating. The electrons obtained by electroless plating are directly generated in the solution through chemical reactions. It generally includes charge exchange accumulation, contact accumulation, recovery accumulation, etc. Nowadays, chemical nickel plating, copper plating, silver plating, gold plating, cobalt plating, palladium plating, platinum plating, tin plating, etc. have been used in industrial production, especially in the electronics industry.
Electroplating is the process of applying a metallic coating to another piece of metal (or another conductive surface) through an electrodeposition process. Electroplating is essentially an electrolysis process, and the amount of material separated on the cathode is proportional to the current intensity and time. There are three necessary conditions for electroplating: power supply, aqueduct (liquid) and electrodes. Electroplating can cover materials or parts with a relatively uniform layer with good adhesion to change their surface characteristics and appearance, achieving the purpose of data protection or decoration. The market shares of electroplating and chemical plating are 49.18% and 23.22% respectively. Electroplating has low cost and good effect, and has become the main type in the market.
Generally speaking, both electroless plating and electroplating are intended to form a layer of metal coating on the surface of the workpiece to achieve the purpose of enhancing corrosion resistance and aesthetics.