Abstract: A formaldehyde-free chemical bath containing a palladium salt, a nitrogenated completing agent, and formic acid or formic acid derivatives, at a pH of greater than 4 and a process of using the chemical bath for depositing on a metal surface an adhesive, permanently glossy, bright palladium layer with few pores. The metal surface may be pretreated in a cementation palladium bath. The metal surface contains at least one of copper, nickel, and cobalt, as well as their alloys with one another and/or with phosphorus or boron.

Abstract: The invention concerns a process disclosed for the pre-treatment of synthetic materials (plastics), particularly polyetherimide, polycarbonate and poly(ester-co-carbonate), for the adhesive chemical metallization, involving treating the synthetic material with a quaternary base dissolved in an organic solvent.

Abstract: A process is disclosed for the adhesive metallization of synthetic materials, by means of pre-treatment of the synthetic materials and subsequent activation, as well as chemical and, if necessary, galvanic metal deposition, characterized by pre-treating the synthetic materials initially with an alkaline solution of an oxidation agent and then with a metal salt solution.

Abstract: Stabilized aqueous, acid gold bath, containing a dicyanogold(I)-complex, a complex former, a reducing agent and customary additives, for electroless deposition of gold onto gold and metals that are more electronegative than gold, as well as alloys of these metals, containing a salt of hydroxylamine or a hydroxylamine derivative as reducing agent and a fluoride or hydrogen fluoride as stabilizer. Preferred embodiments include the use of an alkali- or ammonium dicyanoaurate(I) as dicyanogold(I)-complex; using a salt of hydroxylamine or a hydroxylamine derivative of the general formula ##STR1## in which R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 are the same or different and represent hydrogen or alkyl of 1 to 5 carbon atoms and X represents the residue of an inorganic acid, as reducing agent; using an alkali fluoride or an alkali hydrogen fluoride as stabilizer; and a pH-value less than 3, preferably from 0.5 to 2.8.