Effect of lactic acid on nucleation morphology and surface roughness of electroless Ni–P deposition in nanoscale

The present work aims to study effect of lactic acid concentration as complexing agent on surface roughness and nucleation morphology of electroless N–P deposition. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) have been used to study nucleation morphology and surface roughness of deposition. Deposition process started at some initial priority growing centres independently distributed on the substrate. We found that the morphology and surface roughness of deposition strongly depends on the complexing agent concentration. Morphology of initial deposited centres with no concentration of lactic acid was in coniform structure. By increasing the complexing agent concentration, the structure of initial growing centres changed from coniform to nodular shape and the surface roughness of depositions decreased.