An object of the present invention is to provide an electroless nickel plating solution that can form a nickel film which can surely cover a surface of a copper material even when the film thickness is thin, and a method for forming a nickel film using the electroless nickel plating solution. In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the electroless nickel strike plating solution used for forming the nickel film on the surface of the copper material includes: a water-soluble nickel salt in a concentration of 0.002 to 1 g/L in terms of nickel; one or more carboxylic acids or salts thereof; and one or more reducing agents selected from the group of dimethylamine borane, trimethylamine borane, hydrazine and hydrazine derivatives.

A separator for fuel cells is provided. The separator includes: a base material; an underlying plate layer formed on the base material; and a gold plate layer formed on the underlying plate layer by means of electroless plating. The separator is characterized in that a face of the underlying plate layer facing the gold plate layer has an arithmetic average roughness Ra of 80 nm or less. According to the present invention, there can be provided a separator for fuel cells in which the gold plate layer can be uniformly formed for irregular parts that constitute gas flow channels and the occurrence of unformed parts and pinholes in the gold plate layer is prevented without increasing the film thickness of the gold plate layer and which is excellent in the corrosion resistance and the conductivity.

An electroless plating method for a low temperature co-fired glass ceramic substrate includes: a degreasing and activation treatment step of degreasing and activating a surface of a wiring pattern formed of a silver sintered body; a catalyzing step of providing a catalyst onto the surface of the wiring pattern formed of a silver sintered body; and an electroless multi-layered coating plating treatment step of forming a multi-layered electroless plating coating on the surface of the wiring pattern formed of a silver sintered body. The method further includes, between the degreasing and activation treatment step and the catalyzing step, a silver precipitation treatment step of precipitating silver on a glass component present on the surface of the wiring pattern formed of a silver sintered body after the degreasing and activation treatment step, and the catalyzing step includes providing the catalyst also to the silver precipitated in the silver precipitation treatment step.

A method of electrolessly plating an iron-based substrate, including immersing an iron-based substrate in an acidic solution, immersing the iron-based substrate in a basic complexing solution, immersing the iron-based substrate in a catalytic metal solution including a catalytic metal, and immersing the iron-based substrate in an electroless nickel plating solution or an electroless cobalt plating solution.

An object is to provide an electroless plating process which can thin a film thickness of a nickel film and can obtain a film having excellent mounting characteristics, when the nickel film and a gold film are sequentially formed on a surface of a copper material. In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, provided is an electroless plating process which sequentially forms a nickel film and a gold film on a surface of a copper material by an electroless plating method and includes: a step of forming the nickel film on the surface of the copper material by an electroless strike plating method; and a step of forming the gold film by a reduction-type electroless plating method.

A plated wire rod material according to the present disclosure contains a substrate containing aluminum or an aluminum alloy, and a surface treatment coat including one or more metal layers and covering the substrate. Of the one or more metal layers, an undermost metal layer which is a metal layer formed on the substrate includes nickel, a nickel alloy, cobalt or a cobalt alloy. A mixed layer containing a metal component in the substrate, a metal component in the surface treatment coat and an oxygen component is present at an interface between the substrate and the surface treatment coat.

A patterning process, comprises: (i) forming a radiation-sensitive film on a substrate, wherein the radiation-sensitive film comprises: (a) a resin, (b) a photoacid generator, (c) a first quencher, and (d) a second quencher; (ii) patternwise exposing the radiation-sensitive film to activating radiation; and (iii) contacting the radiation-sensitive film with an alkaline developing solution to form a resist pattern; wherein the resin comprises the following repeat units: ##STR00001##
wherein: R.sub.1 is selected from a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having from 1 to 4 carbon atoms, a cyano group or a trifluoromethyl group; Z is a non-hydrogen substituent that provides an acid-labile moiety; n is from 40 to 90 mol %; m is from 10 to 60 mol %; and the total combined content of the two repeat units in the resin is 80 mol % or more based on all repeat units of the resin; and the first quencher is selected from benzotriazole or a derivative thereof.

The present invention provides a plating method capable of easily performing various decorative plating processes. The plating method includes a bulge forming process of forming a bulge on an object to be plated by ejecting ink drops of first UV-curable ink from an inkjet head such that the ejected ink drops land on the object, and a plating process of plating the object having the bulge formed thereon, after the bulge forming process. Also, in the bulge forming process, the bulge is formed such that a second surface of the bulge to be plated has surface roughness different from that of a first surface of the object to be plated.

There are provided: an aluminum alloy magnetic disk substrate including: an aluminum alloy base material including an aluminum alloy containing 0.4 to 3.0 mass % (hereinafter, simply referred to as %) of Fe, 0.1 to 3.0% of Mn, 0.005 to 1.000% of Cu, and 0.005 to 1.000% of Zn, with the balance of Al and unavoidable impurities; and an electroless NiP plated layer formed on a surface of the aluminum alloy base material, in which the peak value (BLEI) of Fe emission intensity at an interface between the electroless NiP plated layer and the aluminum alloy base material, as determined by a glow discharge optical emission spectrometry device, is lower than Fe emission intensity (AlEI) in the interior of the aluminum alloy base material, as determined by the glow discharge optical emission spectrometry device; and a method for producing the aluminum alloy magnetic disk substrate.

A method is disclosed for electroless plating of thin metal film directly onto a substrate. The method includes the steps of: cleaning the substrate to remove organic material; etching a surface of the substrate to remove an oxygen-containing surface layer; soaking and rinsing the substrate in a plurality of baths following etching; and electroless plating the metal onto the substrate.