METAL-COATED COLLOIDAL PARTICLES

Procedures are described for coating of submicrometre ceramic powders with copper and nickel. The process required precoating of the core pa rticles with a palladium catalyst. A precoating procedure was develope d in which palladium chloride is reduced by sodium hypophosphite or st annous chloride on the powder surface in aqueous suspensions. Commerci al electroless solutions were used to deposit copper and nickel on the catalysed powders. The effect of various experimental parameters on t he effectiveness of the surface conditioning of the particles was also investigated.