Electrodeposition of textured nickel on nickel alloy Hastelloy

We proposed a new method fabricating low-cost and mechanically strong tapes for coated conductors. In this method, Hastelloy^® tape, which is a strong nickel alloy, is plated with a nickel film. A two-step plating was applied to obtain a textured nickel film. In the first step, a strike bath was used in order to plate a nickel film on Hastelloy surface. In the second step, the film was plated in a low cost watts bath. We controlled various plating conditions such as pH-condition, thickness, and current density in the watts bath to fabricate a textured nickel film. The crystal orientation of the nickel films was characterized by an X-ray diffraction method (XRD) with Cu Kα radiation. Preferred orientation of the film depends on pH of watts bath, nickel film thickness, and current density. The optimal conditions for obtaining a textured nickel film are pH of 4.5 for the watts bath, current density of 500 A/m², and thickness of 92 μm. Finally, we succeeded in obtaining nickel films with 96% c-axis orientation.