Improvement in the Electrical Properties of Nickel Plated Steel Using Graphitic Carbon Coatings

Thin layers of highly conductive graphitic carbon are deposited onto nickel-plated steel substrates using a direct photothermal chemical vapor deposition (PTCVD) technique. The coated nickel-plated steel substrates improve electrical properties (sheet resistance and interfacial contact resistance [ICR]) compared with pristine nickel-plated steel, which makes it a cost-effective alternative to stainless steel for steel producers to use in high-end electrical applications such as energy storage and microelectronics. The coated nickel-plated steel is found to have approximate to 10% reduction in sheet resistance and 200 times reduction in ICR (under compression at 140 N cm(-2)), compared with pristine nickel-plated steel. ICR is also three times lower than that of a benchmark gold-coated stainless steel equivalent at the same pressure.