An Environment-Friendly Surface Pretreatment of ABS Plastic for Electroless Plating Using Chemical Foaming Agents

We have developed an environment-friendly etching process, an alternative to the dichromic acid etching process, as a pretreatment of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) plastic for electroless plating. In order to plate ABS plastic in an electroless way, there should be fine holes on the surface of the ABS plastic to enhance mechanically the adhesion strength between the plastic surface and the plate. To make these holes, the surface was coated uniformly with dispersed chemical foaming agents in a mixture of environmentally friendly dispersant and solvent by the methods of dipping or direct application. The solvent seeps into just below the surface and distributes the chemical foaming agents uniformly beneath the surface. After drying off the surface, the surface was heated at a temperature well below the glass transition temperature of ABS plastic. By pyrolysis, the chemical foaming agents made fine holes on the surface. In order to discover optimum conditions for the formation of fine holes, the mixing ratio of the solvent, the dispersant and the chemical foaming agent were controlled. After the etching process, the surface was plated with nickel. We tested the adhesion strength between the ABS plastic and nickel plate by the cross-cutting method. The surface morphologies of the ABS plastic before and after the etching process were observed by means of a scanning electron microscope.