Preparation of metal coatings
AssigneeAMT Holdings, Inc.
InventorsStephen P. Conover, Ashok K. Sharma
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for preparing thin films of noble metals upon porous substrate surfaces including utilizing plasma polymerization wherein the noble metals are derived from a monomer or comonomer precursor of the noble metal and with the precursor being disposed within a plasma glow zone to convert the precursor to its dissociated form, thereby allowing the substrate to receive a deposit of a substantially continuous noble metal film thereon. A wide variety of noble metals and their alloys may be treated in this fashion, including such noble metals as platinum, ruthenium, gold and certain alloys thereof.
Claims40
The method of preparing continuous thin films of noble metal blends upon porous substrate surfaces utilizing plasma polymerization which includes the steps of:
- (a) selecting a porous electrically insulative substrate and mounting the substrate within a reaction chamber housing a plasma reactor;
- (b) selecting a blend of monomer or comonomer precursors, wherein the metals in the blend are selected from the group consisting of platinum, palladium, gold, copper, and tin;
- (c) providing a pair of spaced apart electrodes within said reaction chamber in a configuration for creating a plasma glow reaction within said reaction chamber;
- (d) applying RF energy across said electrodes to create a plasma glow zone therebetween;
- (e) maintaining said plasma glow while simultaneously supporting said plasma glow through the introduction of a plasma supporting gas in the presence of said blend of monomer or comonomer precursor within said reaction zone with the continuation of said plasma glow causing said precursor to convert to dissociated form so as to release said selected noble metals from said precursor to form a component consisting essentially of a layer of said selected noble metals and thereby deposit said selected noble metals component in elemental form as a film of said selected noble metals onto the surface of said substrate.
The method of preparing semi-continuous thin films of noble metal blends upon porous substrate surfaces utilizing plasma polymerization which includes the steps of:
- (a) selecting a porous electrically insulative substrate and mounting the substrate within a reaction chamber housing a plasma reactor;
- (b) selecting a blend of monomer or comonomer precursors, wherein the metals in the blend are selected from the group consisting of platinum, palladium, gold, copper, and tin;
- (c) providing a pair of spaced apart electrodes within said reaction chamber in a configuration for creating a plasma glow reaction within said reaction chamber;
- (d) applying RF energy across said electrodes to create a plasma glow zone therebetween;
- (e) maintaining said plasma glow while simultaneously supporting said plasma glow through the introduction of a plasma supporting gas in the presence of said blend of monomer or comonomer precursor within said reaction zone with the continuation of said plasma glow causing said precursor to convert to dissociated form so as to release said selected noble metals from said precursor to form a component consisting essentially of a layer of said selected noble metals and thereby deposit said selected noble metals component in elemental form as a film of said selected noble metals onto the surface of said substrate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.