Structural and Corrosion Properties of NiPx Metallic Glasses: Insights from EIS and DFT

By Cui, Guofeng; Zhao, Jie; Liu, Shaofang & Wu, Gang
Published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C NULL 2011

Abstract

Despite the increasing interest in metallic glasses for a variety of engineering applications, the structure and corrosion properties still remain unknown. In particular, these properties for Ni -P alloy, a typical metallic glass, are greatly dependent upon the phosphorus content in the alloy. In this report, a relationship between the structural property and the interface corrosion behavior of Ni -P alloys was studied when phosphorus content was intentionally tuned. DFT calculation and EIS measurement were used to determine the electronic structure property and corrosion behavior of Ni -P alloy in acidic Au(III) solution that is applied to the immersion gold process of electroless deposited Ni -P alloys in the manufacture of printed circuit boards. The results indicate that the doped phosphorus atoms are able to bind electrons and change the structure of Ni -P alloy from the metallic to ceramic state, thereby avoiding an overetching in the solution. Theoretical calculation predicts that the anticorrosion ability of Ni -P alloy will be enhanced with phosphorus content. This is in good agreement with experimental data obtained in this work.

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