Effects of Surface Treatment on Adhesion of Silver Film on Glass Substrate Fabricated by Electroless Plating

Abstract

Silver film was fabricated on a glass substrate by electroless plating technique. Plating solution, which also known as Tollen’s reagent, consisted of three main solutions: silver nitrate solution as a silver source, ammonia and sodium hydroxide as pH controllers and D-glucose as a reducing agent. Glass surface was treated by three different methods: HF etching, SnCl2activation and SiC paper grinding. After that, a glass slide was immersed in plating solution for 90 minutes at a room temperature. The purpose of this work was to study the effects of different surface treatments on adhesion between substrate and film. X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern confirmed that the obtained film was a silver phase. Surface morphology of glass slides, before and after plating was investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Moreover, the adhesion of silver film to glass substrate was performed by crosscut test and it was indicated that combined treatment by SiC paper grinding and HF etching was the best surface treatment which provided a good adhesion of film to substrate.