Surface morphology studies of laser irradiated and chemically metalized polyamide composites

Most of polymers need surface treatment prior to be electroless metalized. Conventionally, polymer substrates are cleaned with solvents to remove surface contaminants, then chemically etched to obtain a micro-roughened oxidized surface, and finally seeded with a catalyst such as palladium. In this work, the method consisting in compositional and physical modifications of polyamide (PA6) was applied. Granulated PA6 was mechanically mixed with copper oxide and copper acetylacetonate powders and glass fibers, then extruded and injection molded to produce samples. The samples were irradiated with ArF excimer laser pulses (λ = 193 nm) and electroless metalized by the use of commercial metallization bath and formaldehyde as a reducing agent. Examinations presented in this work focus on studies of laser induced changes in surface morphology of the prepared samples, as well as on the surface morphology of copper layers deposited on these samples.