Continuous and selective-area coating of silver on fiber-reinforced polymer composites for aerospace applications

Abstract

The ability to realize continuous and patterned coatings of pure metal on fiber-reinforced polymer in a cost-effective manner is of prospect for various conductive applications. Electroless plating by Tollen’s process was adapted to produce silver coating on carbon fiber-reinforced polymer with an average coating surface density (areal weight) of 0.31 × 10−3 g·cm−2 and a sheet resistance as low as 1.7 × 10−1 Ω·□−1. Electrical, metallographic, and mechanical characteristics of the coatings are presented. In order to extend the process to produce selective-area coatings of conductive architectures, we propose a direct-write-assisted method that confines the plating chemicals to specific locations on the composite substrates in the form of metallized channels and surfaces bordered by hydrophobic banks. Deposition with linear resolution on the order of hundreds of microns was achieved using this hybrid method. Conductive architectures for different applications such as electrical circuitry, electromagnetic interference shielding, strain sensing and communication (antennae) are illustrated to demonstrate the versatility of the selective-area coating method.