Copper electroless plating of cotton fabrics after surface activation with deposition of silver and copper nanoparticles

In this work, surface metallization of cotton fabrics was performed by electroless plating using a shorter route than is conventional. The fabric surface was activated by deposition of silver and copper nanoparticles, and then a thin layer of copper was coated using electroless plating. The performance of coated fabrics was compared in terms of electrical conductivity, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, Joule heating and antibacterial properties with another sample coated with conventional electroless plating. The orthogonal array testing strategy was adopted to optimize the various factors of the electroless plating bath. The samples prepared by electroless plating of copper showed greater performance for the fabric first deposited with silver particles than those first deposited with copper particles or conventionally treated. Samples of copper electroplating over silver had surface resistivity of 20 Ω, EMI shielding of 75.53 dB and Joule heating of 83.1 °C. Moreover, samples with modified electroless plating showed better attachment of the metal layer and therefore longer durability.