Electroless deposition method for silver-coated carbon fibres

Silver (Ag)-coated carbon fibres (CFs) have been successfully fabricated at 30°C via a simple electroless deposition method, and glucose was used as a green reducing agent. The phase purity and microstructures of the Ag coatings were characterised by X-ray diffraction and a scanning electron microscope equipped with energy-dispersive spectroscopy. It was found that the dosage of sodium hydroxide and the reaction time played important roles in Ag deposition. The CFs with a compact and continuous Ag layer possessed excellent conductivity, and the volume resistivity could reach 5.59 × 10^-4 Ω cm. Such composites with high electrical conductivity have potential applications in fibre-matrix composites, shielding materials and so on.