Recent trends in metal alloy electrolytic and electroless plating research: a review

A short review of the recent electrolytic and electroless plating research trends for a variety of metal alloys deposited to improve corrosion resistance, wear characteristics and hardness, magnetic behaviour, catalytic properties and for other application areas, is presented. The review contains key references from the period 2008 to the present (mid 2011), although it is not exhaustive. One finding is that most of the studies highlighted appear to be focused on one or more application areas, rather than being mechanistic deposition process studies. In addition, applications other than corrosion and wear resistance seem to have inspired significantly more effort than hitherto.