Surface modification of ABS polymer by electroless deposition of thin nickel film from a solution without reducing agent

ABSTRACT

For preparation of acrylonitrile–butadiene-styrene (ABS) polymer, suitable for electrodeposition of a subsequent metal coating, a modification of the activated polymer surface by electroless nickel deposition in an alkaline nickel citrate-based solution without reducing agent is proposed. The influence of the main components of the solution and the working conditions on the mass of the nickel deposit has been studied. The modified surface was characterised using SEM, EDS and XPS analyses. The obtained nickel in oxidised state is sufficient to conduct current for subsequent electrodeposition of copper coating.

KEYWORDS:

• ABS polymer
• metallisation
• electroless Ni deposition
• SEM
• XPS

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Bulgarian National Science Fund – Project DN 19/1, ‘Metallisation of dielectric materials using innovative environmental solutions’ and the National Science Program ‘Young Scientists and Postdoctoral Fellows’ Bulgarian Academy of Science. Project INFRAMAT (National Roadmap for Scientific Infrastructure) of Ministry of Education and Science is gratefully acknowledged.

Author contribution

Credit authorship contribution statement: Veselina Chakarova: Investigation, Visualisation, Writing – review and editing, Funding acquisition. Maria Petrova: Funding acquisition, Supervision, Writing – review and editing. Ekaterina Dobreva: Conceptualisation, Writing – review and editing. Diana Lazarova: Investigation, Milko Monev: Validation, Writing original draft.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.