Electroless plating of copper through successive pretreatment with silane and colloidal silver

We report a method to perform electroless copper plating on glass that could generate a solid copper film. In this method, gamma-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MPTS) was used to form self-assembled molecular layers on commercially available glass slides, which were subsequently activated by dipping them directly into colloidal Ag solution instead of conventional two-step method, SnCl2 sensitization followed by PdCl2 activation, and applied Successfully for electroless Cu plating. Experimental characterizations showed that a thin layer of Ag colloids was anchored onto the glass surface through S-Ag bonds, resulting a quicker deposition of copper metal and a stronger adherence of copper film on iMPTS-modified glass surface than those on conventional two-step modified glass. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.