Patent ID: 7361262

Claim:
An acid plating bath for the electrolytic deposition of satin nickel deposits containing a nickel electrolyte, at least one quaternary ammonium compound and at least one polyether, the at least one polyether having at least one strongly hydrophobic side chain, wherein the at least one polyether has the following general chemical formula (I): wherein R 1 and R 1′ are independently hydrogen or methyl and can be selected independently in each [(CH 2 CHR 1 O)] a —CHR 1′ —CH 3 unit; R 3 is hydrogen or a linear chain or branched chain C 1 - to C 18 -alkyl; a is an integer from 0 to 500; Z is a grouping selected from the group consisting of a single bond, CH 2 , O, NR 4 , SO 2 , S, NR 4 SO 2 , COO, CO and NR 4 CO, wherein R 4 is hydrogen or a linear chain or branched chain C 1 - to C- 18 -alkyl group; R 2 is a moiety selected from the group consisting of and wherein the chains of the groups having the formulae (II) and (III) can be either linear or branched; X is a single bond or O: n and m are integers from 0 to 12, wherein n+m is at least 1; o is either 0 or 1; R 5 , R 6 , R 7 , R 8 , R 9 , R 10 and R 11 are selected independently and are each a moiety selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, a linear chain or branched chain C 1 - to C 18 -alkyl and substituted or unsubstituted phenyl; and instead of a hydrogen atom the hydrophobic side chain —Z—R 2 is bound to a carbon atom of the unit —CH 2 —CHR 1 —O— or to a carbon atom of the end group —CHR 1′ —CH 3 .