Embrittlement study of electroplated nickel films by microindentation

Electroplated nickel is known to suffer from a brittle fracture problem. This phenomenon originates from small amounts of impurities such as hydrogen, sulfur and phosphorus which are incorporated during the plating process and improve the mechanical properties (hardness) through grain refinement. In this study, the correlation between the impurities and brittle fracture of electroplated Ni films was systematically investigated via microindentation in the temperature range 673–973 K. The measured KC values ranged between 2.6 and 3.2, and the activation energy for the grain growth was determined to be 234 kJ mol−1.