Study On The Factor Of The Technique Of Electroless Copper Plating On Carbon Fiber

The factors of the technique of electroless copper plating on carbon fiber are studied. In this experiment, carbon fiber is the substrate for electroless plating, and a series of preprocessing to carbon fibers are carried in order to produce outstanding composites.A series of experiments are carried on carbon fibers, such as oxidation, sensitization, and activation, etc. As a result, one quite ideal pretreatment method is discovered. Firstly, carbon fiber is sintered at high temperature, degreased, washed in the sodium hydroxide solution, oxidized in the ammonium persulfate. Secondly, carbon fiber is sensitized and activated simultaneously and then the surface of carbon fiber has catalyzing properties. The single factor experimental method is used to discover the better compositio of the electroless plating solution. The composition is listed below: CUSO4,10 g/L; anion surface active agent,10 g/L; the passivating agent,1.5 g/L. The plating condition is:temperature, room-temperature; the mixing speed, medium speed.The electroless copper plating process for carbon fiber using CUSO4·5H2O as the main salt and zinc as reducing agent is experimentally studied, including the effects of concentration of CUSO4, anion surface active agent, the passivating agent on the electroless plating process. The surface morphology and composition of coating are investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy(EDS). The results indicated that the pretreatment of carbon fiber before the electroless plating is so important that it is not only able to prevent from the 'black core" phenomenon but also form an active absorption area with Pd as the center on the carbon fiber surface. With the process parameters got and optimized experimentally, the carbon fiber plated with copper shows homogeneous coating with favorable mechanical properties due to stable bath such as the high bonding strength of coating.