Novel adhesion promoting agents for metallisation of substrate surfaces

Wet chemical method for plating a metal onto a non-conductive substrate comprising the steps of

• i. depositing on at least a portion of the non-conductive substrate surface a metal oxide compound selected from the group consisting of zinc oxides, titanium oxides, zirconium oxides, aluminum oxides, silicon oxides, and tin oxides or mixtures of the aforementioned and a transition metal plating catalyst compound selected from the group consisting of copper oxides, nickel oxides, and cobalt oxides and mixtures of the aforementioned, wherein the non-conductive substrate is a ceramic, semiconductor or glass substrate and thereafter
• ii. heat treating the non-conductive substrate at a temperature of more than 400° C. and thereby forming an adhesive catalytic layer of the metal oxide compound and the transition metal plating catalyst compound on at least a portion of the substrate surface;
• and thereafter;
• iii. metal plating at least the substrate surface bearing the transition metal plating catalyst compound by applying a wet-chemical electroless plating method, wherein the composition for plating comprises a source of the metal ions to be plated and a reducing agent, and
• iv. heating of the metal plating layer to a temperature of between 150° and 500° C.