Microcontact printing large-area pattern of catalytic Pd ink with a polyelectrolyte modified stamp for selective electroless deposition of nickel on glass substrate

• A simple and effective method to fabricate a large-area conductive metal pattern.
• A combination of μCP with Pd ink and electroless plating for metallizing patterns.
• Rubber was used as our stamp material and was patterned by an engraving machine.
• Pattern quality of the metallized films depend on the type of surface treatment.
• The adhesion of NiP coating with glass is good and corresponded to classification 4B.

In this paper, a simple and effective method to fabricate a large-area conductive metal pattern on glass substrate is described. This method involves microcontact printing (μCP)of a thermo-sensitive St-co-NIPAAm/Pd nanoparticle-based ink on a glass substrate to create the catalytic site, onto which nickel is subsequently deposited by an electroless plating method, to obtain the desired metal pattern. The Pd nanoparticles reduced and stabilized by styrene-N-isopropylacrylamide co-oligomer showed their well dispersion in the water without surfactant and reductant in the mixture and these nanoparticles adhered well to glass surface. Through a carefully examine the effect of surface modification of rubber stamp using either cationic or anionic polyelectrolyte on the surface properties of rubber and resolution of CP, our results indicates that a complete and uniform Ni pattern can be produced simply by modifying the pristine stamp surface with a positively charged polyelectrolyte (poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride), PDDA). It enhances the affinity between Pd ink and the PDDA-modified stamp and produces a uniform ink layer on the substrate. The excellent adhesion of the deposited NiP coating to the substrate was ascertained by the scotch tape test method.