[What is the future for the galvanic industry in Italy and Europe]. / Quale futuro per la galvanica in Italia ed Europa.

A number of European directives and burocratic constraints give difficulties to the galvanic Italian industries: The situation of the Galvanic industry in Italy is examined, with special care about the innovation perspectives needed to maintain an important role for the Italian surface treatment processes in Italy. Alternatives are already present for zinc cyanic alkaline plating and for the passivation with chromates of zinc. Difficult instead is the substitution of bright nickel and of electroless autocatalytic nickel An important process is Plating On Plastics POP and on other non conducting materials with electroless nickel The substitution of colloidal Palladium for surface activation is proposed. New innovative processes are proposed, regarding composite depositions with powders of micron or nano size, pulsed current deposition and deposition of layers with structure controlled at nanometric level. A strict cooperation among Research centres, Universities and Industries can start the renewal of a production of fundamental importance for the Italian future.

Unusually large magnetic anisotropy in electrochemically deposited Co-rich Co-Pt films.

Co-rich Co-Pt films grown by electrodeposition from an amino-nitrite/citrate/glycine electrolyte onto Au(111) substrates apparently grow with a hexagonal structure, with its c-axis directed perpendicular to the surface. The films exhibit a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (MCA) of the same order of magnitude as the shape anisotropy. Experimental estimates of the MCA result in a higher anisotropy than that reported for bulk materials of the same composition, but similar to values measured in films grown by vacuum methods at relatively high temperature, which partly consist of a high anisotropy, metastable orthorhombic Pmm2 phase. Comparison of valence band X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements on electrodeposited films with density functional theory simulations of the electronic structure of the various reported Co(3)Pt structures support the notion that the films may consist of a mixture of the hexagonal and the Pmm2 structure.