Electroless Cu Plating on ABS Plastic by Using Environmentally Friendly Chemicals

Abstract

In this study, the electroless copper plating technique was applied on Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) plastic. The effects of ionic liquid types, plating time and sanding paper size were investigated on plating. Experiments were carried out with two different types of ionic liquids: 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium chloride (EMIC C6H11NCl) and 1-ethyl 3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide (DCA, C8H11N5), with 120-500 grit sandpapers by applying sand attrition process, at constant bath temperature as 60⁰C, and with 30-150 minutes of deposition times. The characterization of the coated samples was performed by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Experimental results show that the copper plating on ABS plastic was succeeded. The maximum amount of deposit was obtained by using EMIC as catalyst with 150 min deposition time and with 500 grit sandpaper size