Supercritical carbon dioxide-assisted platinum metallization of polyethylene terephthalate textile toward wearable device

Abstract

Platinum metallization of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) textile is realized by a supercritical carbon dioxide catalyzation process using palladium (II) hexafluoroacetylacetonate as the source of Pd catalyst, and ε-caprolactam as an additive. A commercially available Pt electroless plating solution is used to deposit Pt on the catalyzed PET textile. Surface morphology of the Pt metallized PET textile changes from granular particle to plate-like morphology when the Pt deposition time increases from 1 to 40 min. The Pt layer thickness reaches 270 nm, 580 nm, and 780 nm after 20 min, 60 min and 240 min, respectively, of the Pt deposition time. The Pt metallized PET textile prepared with 240 min of the Pt deposition time shows the lowest electrical resistance at 0.4 Ω, and the electrical resistance merely increases to 0.7 Ω and 1.0 Ω after one and two times, respectively, of a tape adhesion test.