An alternative process for the preparation of Cu-coated mica composite powder

Metallization technique based electroless coating is used to prepare Cu-coated mica composite powder. The [Ag(NH3)2]+ activator is directly employed to render the surface of mica substrate catalytically active towards copper deposition in the electroless coating solution. The mica powder was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM)/energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES)/X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infra-red spectroscope (FTIR) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) during and after the coating process. A possible mechanism of electroless copper coating of mica powder utilizing the [Ag(NH3)2]+ activator is proposed. The results show that mica powder adsorbs the [Ag(NH3)2]+ ions mainly by surface adsorption, and relatively uniform and continuous copper coating, which has fcc crystalline structure, is obtained under the giving coating conditions.