An alternative process for electroless copper plating on polyester fabric

摘要

Electroless copper plating of polyester fabrics was demonstrated in the present investigation. The electroless Cu plating process on polyester fabric was modified by replacing the conventional PdCl 2 activator with an AgNO 3 activator to reduce the overall cost of the plating process. Both uncoated and Cu-coated polyester fabrics were characterized by the scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscope (XPS). Relatively uniform and continuous plating was obtained under the given plating conditions. The possible mechanism of electroless copper plating of polyester fabrics utilizing an AgNO 3 activator was suggested. The electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness (SE) was also evaluated to study the shielding behavior of copper-plated polyester fabrics. The results demonstrated that copper-plated polyester fabrics can be applied for EMI shielding.