Preliminary Study on Electrodeposition of Copper Platings and Codeposition of Carbon Nanotubes from Organic Solvent

Metal/carbon composite plating is an effective strategy for improving and adding properties to metal plating by incorporating carbon materials into the metal matrices. Copper (Cu) is widely applied, particularly in the areas of heat management and electronic packaging owing to its high thermal and electrical conductivities, which can be further improved together with improvements in mechanical properties by compositing it with carbon nanotubes (CNTs). However, because hydrophobic CNTs are hardly dispersible in aqueous solutions, additional intense acid treatment or the addition of dispersants is required for their dispersion. Moreover, previous studies have reported that these methods suffer from deterioration of composite material performance through the destruction of the CNT surface or the inclusion of dispersants into the plating. Therefore, in this study, the electrodeposition of a Cu/CNT composite in a non-aqueous solvent that can disperse CNTs without any additional treatment is investigated. The experimental results show that it is possible to deposit Cu from a N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone containing copper iodide and potassium iodide. Furthermore, Cu/CNT composite platings containing CNTs up to 0.12 mass% were prepared by constant current electrolysis, and applying pulse electrolysis can increase the CNTs content up to 0.22 mass%.