Chemical Microetching of Three-dimensional Gear-like Pattern on Nickel Surface

The chemical micromachining on nickel surface with three-dimensional (3D) gear-like mold was realized by confined etchant layer technique (CELT). By using effective chemical etching and scavenging system (HNO_(3) + NaOH) and optimizing experimental parameters, such as the etching time, etching current density, concentration of the etchant or and scavenger, we obtained the etched pattern, which is close to negative copy of the mold. The etched micro-pattern characterized by SEM and AFM, demonstrates that CELT can be applied to the 3-D microstructure replication on nickel surface .