Electroless copper plating on PET fabrics using hypophosphite as reducing agent

Electroless copper plating on PET fabrics using hypophosphite as reducing agent was investigated. A continuous copper deposition could be obtained as the nickel ion concentration and temperature were more than 0.0030 M and 65 °C, respectively. The deposition rate increased obviously with the increase of temperature, pH and nickel ion concentration. Potassium ferrocyanide (K4Fe(CN)6) was used to improve the properties of the copper deposits. The addition of K4Fe(CN)6 to the plating solution could reduce the deposition rate and make the deposits become more compact, which led to lower surface resistance of copper-coated fabrics. The copper deposit had an intensified (111) plane orientation with the addition of K4Fe(CN)6 to the plating bath. The conductive fabrics could be prepared at the optimum condition with 0.0038M nickel ions and 2 ppm K4Fe(CN)6. As the copper weight on the fabric was 40 g/m2, the shielding effectiveness (SE) of copper-coated fabrics was more than 85 dB at frequency ranging from 100 MHz to 20 GHz.