Study On Technology And Properties Of Silver Plating On Polyester Fiber And Fabric

Polyester fibers are widely used in various fields because of its excellent physical and mechanical properties and chemical stability, however, its application is limited because of its poor conductivity. Silver is widely used in surface treatment of materials, owing to its excellent electrical conductivity, antimicrobial properties, ductility, and catalytic activity. Polyester/silver composites have large prospects both for its excellent performance of polyester and metallic silver, and the material can get some metallic luster and decorative effect.PET/Ag composite is made by a variety of methods. Firstly, the continuous polyester fiber electroless silver plating process was studied; we discussed the impact of process parameters on the coating of silver-plated fibers. Secondly, the silver coating is so thin that poor durability, so the fiber was carried out with non-cyanide silver plating and made a research on the impact of bath composition, plating silver plating parameters on the fiber coating. Lastly, Laser induced PVP (polyvinyl pyrrolidone)/AgN03 colloid solution which were coated on polyester fabric and the Ag nanoparticles were successfully deposited on the surface of polyester fiber by laser irradiation which as an activator for electroless cop-per plating. The detailed researches are shown as follows:(1) Silver-coated polyester fiber was prepared by electroless plating without using conventional activation treatment. The results demonstrated that no activation pretreatment was suitable for electroless silver plating on polyester fiber and related reaction mechanism is also discussed.(2) We designed a continuous silver plating apparatus based on electroless silver plating, and to improve the machine according to the pre-treatment of the silver plating and plating process parameters to complete the continuous preparation, then determine the relevant pre-treatment and silvering process parameters, and successfully achieved continuous preparation of silver-plated fibers. A continuous and dense silver layer was successfully deposited on the surface of fiber and its resistivity is 1.5×10-2Ω·cm.(3) In the article, electrosilvering experiment cathode material was silver-plated fibers and discussed the impact of process parameters on the silver plating fibers and also we tested the properties of the fibers. The experiment eventually process parameters:the constant voltage power supply, plating voltage is 1.5-2.0V, plating time is 4min, the plating temperature at room temperature; the coating of the fibers after plating was thicker and conductive properties and durability can be improved significantly.(4) Laser induced PVP (polyvinyl pyrrolidone)/AgN03 colloid solution which were coated on polyester fabric and the Ag nanoparticles were successfully deposited on the surface of polyester fiber by laser irradiation which as an activator for electroless copper plating. The appearance of the metal particles was analyzed and also the protection and reduction of PVP were discussed. The results demonstrated that:Ag nanoparticles were successfully reduced from Ag+with laser irradiation and the particles were shapely and uniformly embedded in the fibers; PVP can protect and reduced the silver ions; the Ag particles had a good catalytic activity in electroless copper plating process.