Electroless deposition of biocompatible Ag/W on quartz for the purpose of variotherm micro molding

Variotherm micro/nano molding demands lower heat capacity but higher thermal conductivity on being electrically heated part. Quartz mold can provide nano/micro features with high accuracy but failed to be used in real molding process due to its low thermal conductivity, which may be elevated by coating metals on it. In this paper, a novel electroless plating solution with ammonia and malic acid as double complexing agents was developed to deposit Ag/W alloys on quartz surface. A suitable surface roughness of quartz glass for Ag/W deposition was obtained at volumetric ratio (HF:H2SiF6:H2O) of 1.4:1:2. The effects of malic acid concentration on the compactness, adhesion, composition, resistivity and deposition rate of the Ag/W coating were investigated. A kinetic model was established for adjusting and predicting Ag/W deposition rate in the coating fabrication process. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.