Electroless Copper Plating on Polydopamine-coated Hollow Glass Microspheres

Abstract

Polydopamine-coated hollow glass microspheres were first prepared via the oxidative self-polymerization of dopamine in an aqueous solution. Then copper ions in electroless copper plating bath were adsorbed by polydopamine and reduced into the copper nanoparticles using dimethylamine broane (DMAB) as an exogenous reducing agent. Thus a copper layer was deposited on the surface of hollow glass microsphere. Copper-plated hollow glass microspheres were successfully fabricated. The surface morphology, chemical composition and crystalline structure of the composite microspheres were investigated by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results show that copper layers which successfully deposited on the polydopamine-coated hollow glass microspheres are continuous and compact. Compared with the traditional electroless plating, this approach is facile, low-cost and environment-friendly.

Keywords

• polydopamine
• hollow glass microsphere
• electroless copper plating
• palladium-free electroless plating