Surface metallization of ABS plastics for nickel plating by molecules grafted method

The surface activation of ABS plastics was achieved by novel palladium-free pretreatments that consisted of molecular grafting and self-assembling. Silver mirror reaction has been developed to prepare silver films on ABS plastics by solution spray. There is an excellent adhesion between the substrate and Ag films as the molecular bonding force is larger than the mechanical anchoring force by conventional sensitizing-activation method. A compact copper coating was prepared on the Ag films to make the products to adapt to a variety of environments, and double‑nickel electroplated coats were achieved to enhance corrosion resistance. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis provided useful data on surface functionality. X-ray diffraction (XRD) result revealed pure silver films on ABS. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were used to characterize the coatings morphologies.