Electroless nickel plating on polymer particles

•Polymer particles are coated with Ni overlayers by electroless plating.•Steric colloidal stabilizer is crucial to obtain colloidally stable Ni-coated particles.•Ni-based capsules can be successfully obtained by removal of organic core material.•Ni-coated particles are electrically conductive.

Near-monodisperse, micrometer-sized polypyrrole–palladium (PPy–Pd) nanocomposite-coated polystyrene (PS) particles have been coated with Ni overlayers by electroless plating in aqueous media. Good control of the Ni loading was achieved for 1.0 μm diameter PPy–Pd nanocomposite-coated PS particles and particles of up to 20 μm in diameter could also be efficiently coated with the Ni. Laser diffraction particle size analysis studies of dilute aqueous suspensions indicated that an additional water-soluble colloidal stabilizer, poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone), in the electroless plating reaction media was crucial to obtain colloidally stable Ni-coated composite particles. Elemental microanalysis indicated that the Ni loading could be controlled between 61 and 78 wt% for the 1.0 μm-sized particles. Scanning/transmission electron microscopy studies revealed that the particle surface had a flaked morphology after Ni coating. Spherical capsules were obtained after extraction of the PS component from the Ni-coated composite particles, which indicated that the shell became rigid after Ni coating. X-ray diffraction confirmed the production of elemental Ni and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies indicated the existence of elemental Ni on the surface of the composite particles.

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