I'm trying to plate silver on palladium silicide. If I don't activate the
palladium silicide with some sort of etch then there is very poor adhesion of
the silver to the silicide.

I have found that HF works, but the HF is very aggressive at attacking the
silicide itself. In particular it causes the silicide layer to peel. I found
some papers that show that HF will electrochemically etch silicon in the
presence of Pd. I suspect that this is the cause.

Wondering if anyone has had this problem and could suggest another chemistry to
activate the silicide surface prior to plating.

Thanks,

Rob MacDonald