nickel boron

Electroless nickel-boron coating (often called NiB coating) is a metal plating process that can create a layer of a nickel-boron alloy on the surface of a solid substrate, like metal or plastic. The process involves dipping the substrate in a water solution containing nickel salt and a boron-containing reducing agent, such as an alkylamineborane or sodium borohydride. It is a type of electroless nickel plating. A similar process, that uses a hypophosphite as a reducing agent, yields a nickel-phosphorus coating instead.
Unlike electroplating, electroless plating processes in general not require passing an electric current through the bath and the substrate; the reduction of the metal cations in solution to metallic is achieved by purely chemical means, through an autocatalytic reaction. Thus electroless plating creates an even layer of metal regardless of the geometry of the surface – in contrast to electroplating which suffers from uneven current density due to the effect of substrate shape on the electric field at its surface. Moreover, electroless plating can be applied to non-conductive surfaces.The plating bath usually contains also buffers, complexants, and other control chemicals.

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