Active Filler particles in Inks
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Autocatalytic plating is a form of electrode-less plating in which a metal, for example, cobalt, nickel, gold, silver or copper, is deposited onto a substrate via a chemical reduction process. Coatings derived from this process are usually more uniform and adherent than from other processes and can be applied to unusually shaped surfaces. Non-metallic surfaces can only usually be coated via this process following suitable sensitisation of the substrate. This invention therefore provides a method of preparing a substrate material for subsequent autocatalytic deposition of a metal coating reducing the need for surface preparation by using a reducible silver salt with a suitable filler in a printable ink formulation. Autocatalytic deposition may be used to coat whole surfaces or pre-determined patterns may be deposited by known printing methods.
-
Citations
60 Claims
-
1-31. -31. (canceled)
- 32. A method of preparing a substrate material for subsequent metal plating by an autocatalytic deposition process comprising coating some or all of the substrate material with an ink composition, comprising an ink formulation suitable for printing the substrate to be coated, silver as a reducible silver salt and filler particles, wherein said reducible silver salt is selected such that when reduced it is capable, once the coated substrate is introduced into an autocatalytic deposition solution, of catalysing the deposition of a metal from the autocatalytic deposition solution, onto the coated areas of the substrate, and wherein the proportion of the reducible silver salt is such that the ink composition contains less than 10% by weight of silver.
Specification