Method for providing a conductive surface on a non-conductive polymeric surface
AssigneeCirrus Materials Science Ltd
InventorsZhendi YANG, Fengyan HOU, Ian MARDON
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Abstract
The invention relates to a method for providing a conductive surface on a non-conductive surface, in particular a polymeric surface. In particular the method relates to attaching silver ions to a polymeric surface to facilitate the adhesion of a metallic layer to the polymeric surface.
Claims22
A method for providing a conductive surface on a nonconductive substrate comprising the steps of:
- a. providing a nonconductive substrate;
- b. conditioning the nonconductive substrate with a hydrophilizing agent to render the substrate hydrophilic;
- c. contacting the nonconductive substrate with an aqueous solution comprising a metal ion;
- d. covalently bonding the metal ion to the conditioned nonconducting substrate by the application of energy to form an activated substrate surface comprising metal seeds;
- and
- e. contacting the activated substrate surface with an electroless plating solution comprising a plating metal salt and a reducing agent, the reducing agent being suitable for reducing both the plating metal salt and the metal ion seeds on the activated substrate surface to thereby form a conductive surface on the nonconductive substrate.
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A conductive metal surface comprising a hydrophilic conditioned nonconductive substrate, activated metal seeds, an electroless metal deposited metal surface, and an electroplated metal surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.