Nickel films prepared by electroless plating and arc discharge deposition methods on beech wood: physical and chemical properties

Two methods, electroless plating and arc discharge deposition, were used to prepare nickel films on beech wood substrate. Coated films were characterised by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and the transverse electromagnetic (TEM) cell. The SEM results showed that the nickel covers the whole beech wood surface in all prepared films, with thickness varied from 0.7 mu m to 2.3 mu m. Using XRD, nickel crystallite sizes were measured to be 10 nm and 23 nm in electroless plating and arc discharge deposition methods, respectively. The XPS results demonstrated that the surface of the prepared films had a pure metallic nickel form without the presence of nickel oxide. Tests achieved with transverse electromagnetic cell (TEM cell) showed that an enhancement was detected in the measured electric field near the studied samples (at f = 1,500 MHz), which was found to be correlated with the quantity of nickel coated on beech wood surface and independent of the applied electromagnetic field level. The results of this study indicated that beech wood is a promising substrate for metal deposition in vacuum-plasma and chemical solution environment.