The influence of iron powder microstructure on its electrolytical coating with nickel

Reactivity of the metallic powder material is an important property in the process of its electrolytical coating. The effect of iron powder activation was investigated prior to its electrolytic nickel-plating. The main attention was focused on the verification of the existence of correlation between the microstructure of differently pre-treated powder samples, reflected in X-ray diffraction characteristics full width at half maximum and efficiency of its electrochemical coating by nickel. In this article are presented the following methods of activation: without pre-treatment, mechanical activation and thermal one, and their combination. The highest efficiency of powder particles coating was obtained for mechanically activated iron powder. The thermal activation lowers the electroplating efficiency and minimum nickel-coating was found in experiments with nonactivated powder and for samples activated mechanically and thermally.