Plasma surface modification of poly(tetrafluoroethylene) substrates: A route for electroless plating

Abstract

This paper deals with the electroless metallization (nickel plating) of poly(tetrafluoroethylene) substrates which were previously submitted to RF glow-discharge plasmas in various gaseous atmospheres (H2, He, Ar, O2, N2, NH3) and subsequently to sensitization/activation or direct activation processes in order to chemisorb palladium which is the catalyst of the plating reaction. As shown in previous works and confirmed in this one, the use of the conventional sensitization/activation treatment (immersion of the plasma-treated samples successively in acidic tin chloride and palladium chloride solutions) is made possible due to the strong chemical affinity of tin to oxygen. On the other hand, when nitrogenated species are grafted on the PTFE surface, the chemisorption of the catalyst can be directly accomplished using only a simple acidic palladium chloride solution. It is shown, in more detail, in this paper that O2 and H2 plasmas cannot be used to deposit electroless Ni films through the conventional sensitization/activation process. This is due to the negligible oxygen content grafted onto the PTFE surface (case of O2 plasma), and to the strong crosslinking of this same surface (case of H2 plasma) even though the amount of oxygen grafted during the post reactions in air is relatively high. On the other hand, bright and adherent Ni deposits are obtained by using either He or N2 plasmas via the conventional two-step process again due to the oxygen species grafted during the post-reactions in air, or by N2 and NH3 plasmas via the direct one-step process due to the nitrogen species grafted during the plasmas themselves.