Colloidal Silver Activation for Electroless Copper Deposition

Abstract—Palladium is commonly used as a catalyst in the process of surface metallization of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), but since palladium is expensive, alternatives are sought. In this study, colloidal silver was used as the catalyst to metallize an ABS surface, and the effect of colloidal silver on the electroless copper plating of the ABS surface under different conditions was studied. The average bonding strength was 1.37 kN/m, which is much higher than that of palladium colloid. The experimental results show that colloidal silver has good catalytic activity, and it is expected to be used in metallization of industrial non-conductive surfaces.