A Precious Metal-Free Electroless Technique for the Deposition of Copper on Carbon Fibers

This article introduces a new technique of electroless copper deposition on carbon fibers in the absence of precious metal as the catalyst. Copper layers were electrolessly deposited on the surface of carbon fiber without using the conventional palladium or silver catalyst to initiate redox reactions leading to metallization. This new technique shows that nickel seeds can serve as excellent catalysts to expedite the redox reactions. By performing experiments, parameters such as activation temperature, nickel ion concentration, and pH value were optimized, and an orbicular copper plating layer of carbon fiber was obtained in the copper sulfate salt-based conventional electroless solution. The surface morphology of copper coating was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The results indicate that uniform and smooth copper coating could be obtained by the new precious-metal free activation process. The resulting copper coating thickness is about 1 μm.