Aluminium is one of the mostly used elements in the industry because of its abundance and low weight. However, the deposition of a metallic coating requires performing the so-called zincate pre-treatment in order to allow the formation of inter-metallic bonds and thereby achieving sufficient adherence. In this work, porous anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) is used as an anchoring intermediate layer for nickel coatings. AAO is grown anodically in sulfuric acid and nickel coatings are deposited by potentiostatic reverse pulse electrodeposition onto as-anodized aluminium surfaces. The electrodeposition of nickel is initiated onto the electrochemically thinned barrier layer of AAO and pursued until the complete covering of the oxide. The electrochemical behavior of Watts and sulfamate baths is investigated by cyclic voltammetry for different barrier layer thickness, allowing to validate the thinning conditions and to determine the appropriate deposition potential of nickel. GD-OES measurements show that low duty cycles are necessary to achieve high filling ratio of the AAO. SEM micrographs show that a smooth uniform coating is obtained when nickel is deposited in presence of additives. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.