Enhanced nickel plating process

A method for plating a layer of a nickel alloy onto a substrate comprising a glass surface, as part of forming a magnetic recording media, comprising the following steps in order:

• (a) providing the substrate comprising the glass surface;
• (b) subjecting the glass surface of the substrate to mechanical roughening in order to create a roughened surface comprising a mean square roughness of between 0.1 nm and 1 nm;
• (c) contacting the roughened surface of the substrate produced in step (b) with an oxidizing agent at a temperature of 50° C. to 100° C. for at least 15 minutes, thereby providing an oxidized surface having covalently bonded hydroxyl groups;
• (d) contacting the oxidized surface produced in step (c) with a solution comprising a silane compound, wherein the silane compound in the solution reacts with the covalently bonded hydroxyl group of the oxidized surface and is bonded to the glass surface by silanol bonds, thereby providing a silanized glass surface;
• (e) contacting the silanized glass surface produced in step (d) with a solution comprising a mixture of palladium ions and tin ions (“Pd/Sn solution”), wherein palladium from the Pd/Sn solution is deposited on the silanized glass surface, thereby forming an activated surface;
• (f) contacting the activated surface produced in step (e) with an accelerator solution comprising sodium nitrate and oxalic acid;
• (g) contacting the substrate surface produced by step (f) with a nickel ion-containing solution having a pH from 8 to 10, and a temperature of between 20° C. and 30° C. for a period of time sufficient to form a seed layer of nickel on the substrate surface produced by step (f) in order to perform an electroless nickel strike step;
• and
• (h) contacting the seed layer produced by step (g) with a nickel ion-containing solution having a pH from 4 to 6, and a temperature of between 40° C. and 80° C., for a period of time sufficient to produce the layer of nickel alloy comprising a final thickness from about 2 micrometers to 5 micrometers.