Metallization of electrospun PAN nanofibers via electroless gold plating

Abstract

An electroless gold plating process was investigated for the metallization of an electropun PAN fibre by utilizing a non-cyanide based gold complex i.e. gold thiosulfate. Prior to metallization the PAN fibers surface was activated and sensitized by the conventional method of treating a fiber surface with Sn 2+ / Pd 2+ followed by the nickel deposition. The surface morphology of the metalized fiber was examined via FESEM and the image metrology software SPIP. The hydrophobic characteristics of the metalized fibre were also investigated, which shows the significant increase in the contact angle after the metallization of fibers.Polymers, functionalized with electroconductive properties have emerged as an intense area of research due to their wide range of applications in developing surface electrical contacts, wire bonding pads of semiconductor devices, protective clothing, space, automotive and high density packaging technology. 1,2 Among various the nanomaterials explored to date, deposition of gold nanoparticles in this context has been extensively investigated for their excellent corrosion resistance, thermal conductivity, ductility, purity, electrical and physical wear resistance. In this framework, diverse methods have been employed to metalize the surface of conductive and nonconductive bers by the virtue of sputtering, electric plating, electroless chemical plating, physical and chemical vapour deposition, in which, electroless plating is particularly pragmatic when electrically isolated metal islands are required to form on the microelectronic substrate. 3 Electroless deposition of gold has been carried out by two type of plating baths, either traditional cyanide plating bath or non-cyanide plating bath. The choice of the bath is predominantly determined by its application in electronic industry. The utilization of cyanide bath is imperative in the evolution of contact materials on electrical connectors, electromechanical relays and printed circuit boards while, non-cyanide deposition is utilized for circuit metallization and bonding semiconductors chips. 4,5The traditional cyanide bath contains the potassium cyanoaurate (KAu (CN) 2 ), which yields highly stable and excellent deposited lm due to its high stability constant of 10 39 . However, the primary detriments of utilizing cyanide bath is the accumulation of cyanide ions in the solution during reduction of Au (CN) 2 À , which results in an undesirable effect by shiing the equilibrium potential to more negative values following a Nernstian behaviour. 6 The cyanide bath also exhibits the tendency of attacking the positive photo resist lm, which accounts for delineating circuit patterns with environmental and safety concerns. These detriments of potassium cyanoaurate have been instigated to develop an alternative non-cyanide gold complex. 7In the present study, we have exploited the non-cyanide based gold thiosulfate complex, possessing adequate chemical stability, modest reduction potential, for metalizing electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanobe...

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