Pretreatment of plastic materials for metal plating
AssigneeAllied Corporation
InventorsAlbert A. Birkmaier, Gary A. Harpell, Bruce E. Kurtz, Gordhanbhai N. Patel, Rustom P. Poncha, Adam L. Skovrinski, James M. Lesco
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Abstract
This invention relates to a process for conditioning the surfaces of natural and synthetic plastic materials for electroless plating of a metal coating thereon by exposing such materials to an atmosphere comprising an effective amount of ozone and thereafter contacting said exposed materials with an effective amount of a conditioning solvent, such as an aqueous solution of sodium, potassium or lithium hydroxide.
Claims23
In an improved process for metal plating a natural or synthetic plastic material by conditioning said material to improve metal adhesion and depositing a metal coating upon said conditioned surface from an electroless plating bath, wherein said improvement comprises a conditioning step in which said material is exposed to an atmosphere comprising an effective amount of ozone and is then contacted with an effective amount of one or more strong organic or inorganic bases.
An improved process for plating one or more metals onto the surfaces of a plastic material which comprises:
- (a) exposing said material to an atmosphere containing an effective amount of ozone;
- (b) contacting said exposed material with an effective amount of one or more strong organic or inorganic bases;
- (c) coating said contacted material with a catalyst for electroless plating of metal thereon;
- and
- (d) depositing a metal coating on said catalyzed material by electroless plating.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.