Aung Than Htwe, Thet Mar Wint, Zayar Lin Myint
Corresponding email: [email protected]
A B S T R A C T
In the present research work, a new environment friendly electroless copper plating process, copper coating has been successfully achieved on acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastics by using a typical alkaline bath solution. A durable bright copper deposition on the ABS plastic was studied by the non-electrolytic process using alkaline copper(II) nitrate bath and gold chloride activator. The electroless copper plating was carried out by studying the impact of different factors such as variation of bath concentration, variation of plating time and variation of temperature. The optimum conditions of smooth surface coverage of quality grade coating were found to be plating time of 15 min, concentration of copper(II) nitrate as 2% (w/v) and the temperature of 60° ± 2 °C. This study suggests that electroless copper plating on acrylonitrile butadiene styrene polymers be used for coating applications in engineering, aircraft, oil and gas, construction, electronics, and a number of other fields based on the results achieved.