Selective Metallization of Thermoplastic Elastomers Based on Laser‐Induced Surface Activation

Abstract

The laser direct structuring (LDS) technology successfully realized the selective metallization of two typical thermoplastic elastomers. Thermoplastic elastomers containing 5 wt.% Cu2(OH)PO4 were designed as LDS materials. The copper layer was obtained after pulsed NIR (λ=1064‐nm) laser activation and metallization. The analysis of the morphologies (OM, SEM, CLSM), the chemical composition (XPS, Raman, XRD), and the performance (scotch tape test, resistance) of materials before and after laser activation and metallization were carried out. The key to obtaining a high‐quality metal layer is as follows: i) Cu2+ was reduced to element copper (Cu0) with amorphous carbon acting as a reducing agent, Cu0 acts as catalyst seeds in metallization; ii) the good adhesion properties between the polymer and the copper layer is the micropores etched by laser activation. In particular, XPS showed 64.6% Cu2+ in SEPS/Cu2(OH)PO4 was reduced to Cu0, while only 18.4% Cu2+ in Pebax/Cu2(OH)PO4 was reduced to Cu0 after laser activation. Moreover, resistances of copper layers on SEPS/Cu2(OH)PO4 and Pebax/Cu2(OH)PO4 were 0.96 and 5.04 Ω after 15 min electroless copper plating, respectively. This study puts forward a simple way of fabricating flexible LDS materials. The prepared SEPS/Cu2(OH)PO4 composite is promising for shape variable decoration and flexible electronic devices.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.