Fabrication and characterization of Ni-decorated h-BN powders with ChCl-EG ionic liquid as addition by electroless deposition

Electroless plating nickel particles on hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) of ceramic powders are investigated in this paper. As comparison, the different additive concentration of choline chloride-ethylene glycol (ChCl-EG) ionic liquid (0g/L, 30g/L, 60g/L, 90g/L) is presented. The effects of ChCl-EG concentration are studied, including the surface morphologies, phase analysis of Ni-decorated h-BN powders, and the residual Ni2+ concentration is measured in electroless plating bath. It is demonstrated that the deposition phenomena of nickel particles on h-BN surface is changed with the addition of ChCl-EG. When the concentration of ChCl-EG is 30g/L, the Ni particles on h-BN surface are in dispersed and spheroid state with the average size of 10-1000nm. It can be found that 30g/L ChCl-EG is conducive to the arise of deposition phenomena, which is the formation of the single nickel particle on h-BN surface. Besides, more Ni particles are deposited on h-BN surface with the increase of plating n...