There is provided a composite plating material and a related technique thereof, the composite plating material including: a base material, and a composite plating layer on the base material, the composite plating layer comprising a composite material containing carbon particles and Sb in an Ag layer, with a carbon content of 6.0 mass % or more and a Sb content of 0.5 mass % or more.

A nano-twinned crystal film and a method thereof are disclosed. The method of fabricating a nano-twinned crystal film includes utilizing an electrolyte solution including copper salt, acid, and a water or alcohol-soluble organic additive, and performing electrodeposition, under conditions of a current density of 20˜100 mA/cm.sup.2, a voltage of 0.2˜1.0V, and a cathode-anode distance of 10˜300 mm, to form the nano-twinned crystal film on a surface at the cathode. The nano-twinned crystal film formed by the method includes a plurality of nano-twinned copper grains and a region of random crystal phases between some of adjacent nano-twinned copper grains, wherein at least some of the nano-twinned copper grains have a pillar cap configuration with a wide top and a narrow bottom.

Provided is an electrodeposited copper foil having high smoothness and exhibiting high flexibility (particularly, high flexibility after annealing at 180° C. for 1 hour) suitable for a flexible substrate. This electrodeposited copper foil has an Rz of 0.1 to 2.0 μm on at least one surface. In cross-sectional analysis by EBSD, a proportion of an area occupied by copper crystal grains satisfying the following conditions relative to an area of an observation field occupied by copper crystal grains is 63% or more. The conditions are as follows: i) (101) orientation; ii) an aspect ratio of 0.500 or less; iii) | sin θ| of 0.001 to 0.707, where θ)(°) is an angle between a normal line of an electrode surface of the electrodeposited copper foil and a major axis of the copper crystal grain; and iv) when the crystal is elliptically approximated, a length of a minor axis of 0.38 μm or smaller.

A method includes forming a seed layer over a first conductive feature of a wafer, forming a patterned plating mask on the seed layer, and plating a second conductive feature in an opening in the patterned plating mask. The plating includes performing a plurality of plating cycles, with each of the plurality of plating cycles including a first plating process performed using a first plating current density, and a second plating process performed using a second plating current density lower than the first plating current density. The patterned plating mask is then removed, and the seed layer is etched.

Metastable alloys have recently emerged as high-performance catalysts, extending the toolbox of binary alloy materials that can be utilized to mediate electrocatalytic reactions. In particular, nanostructured metastable ordered intermetallic compounds are particularly challenging to synthesize. Here the present invention is directed to a method for synthesizing sub-15 nm metastable ordered intermetallic Pd31Bi12 nanoparticles at room temperature, in a single step, by pulsed electrochemical deposition onto high surface area carbon supports. The resulting Pd31Bi12 nanoparticles displays a 7× enhancement of the mass activity relative to Pt/C and a 4× enhancement relative to Pd/C for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The high performance of Pd31Bi12 nanoparticles is demonstrated to arise from reduced oxygen binding caused by alloying of Pd with Bi. The isolation of Pd-sites from each other facilitate methanol tolerant ORR behavior.

The invention relates to a corrosion protection layer system for metal surfaces, said layer system comprising as the two top most layers: a) a discontinuous nickel-phosphorus layer and b) a chromium layer plated from a trivalent chromium electrolyte solution, as well as to a method of producing such a layer system. The inventive layer system is capable to combine the good corrosion resistance of the nickel-phosphorus layer against sodium chloride with the protective power of the chromium layer from the trivalent plating process against magnesium and calcium salts, especially without the need for any post-treatment.

Articles prepared by additive manufacturing of preforms that are coated by electrodeposition of nanolaminate materials, and methods of their production are described.

A surface-treated copper foil includes a treated surface, where the peak extreme height (Sxp) of the treating surface is 0.4 to 3.0 μm. When the surface-treated copper foil is heated at a temperature of 200° C. for 1 hour, the ratio of the integrated intensity of diffraction peak of (111) plane to the sum of the integrated intensities of diffraction peaks of (111) plane, (200) plane, and (220) plane of the treating surface is at least 60%.

A method for processing a smooth or structured surface of a pressing element is described, the method comprising the steps of: a) chrome-plating said surface of the pressing element so as to form a coating comprising a first layer having chrome grains oriented in a first direction and a second layer overlapping said first layer, said second layer having chrome grains oriented in a second direction which is different from said first direction; b) applying a mask on the chrome-plated surface of the pressing element by means of a digital printing technology; c) chemically treating the chrome-plated surface of the pressing element on which said mask was applied, said chemical treatment being performed so as to partially remove said chrome coating in the exposed areas of said chrome-plated surface, i.e. in the areas not being protected by said mask, and d) removing said mask from the chrome-plated surface of the pressing element, obtaining a smooth or structured surface having a coating with areas having a different grade of gloss and colour.

A pressing element obtained by the above processing method and a method for the production of coated panels, such as panels for furniture or floors, bearing a predetermined decorative pattern which uses such pressing element are also described.

Described herein are apparatus and methods for the continuous application of nanolaminated materials by electrodeposition.