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An accessible strategy for high-performance copper layer fabrication on polyphenylene oxide substrates via polydopamine functionalization and electroless deposition

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Abstract

A facile and effective approach to fabricate a high-performance copper layer on polyphenylene oxide (PPO) substrate via electroless deposition for applications in the high-frequency circuit board is introduced in this study. Initially, a polydopamine coating was successfully formed on the surface of the PPO substrate after a micro-chemical etching by the combination of KMnO4 and KOH. Due to the high hydrophilic and strong adhesion of dopamine, the silver ions were uniformly adsorbed on the PPO substrate as a catalyst of electroless copper plating. Consequently, a metal copper layer with high reliability and strong adhesion is formed, which is characterized by optical microscopy, SEM, EDS, and XRD. The resistance of the deposited copper layer was about 2.74 μΩ cm (only block 1.68 times the resistance of copper-shaped copper), and the adhesion of the copper layer also reached the 5B score in the ASTM D3559 standard after the 100-grid peel test. This technique offers a dependable method to prepare a high-performance copper layer on the PPO substrate which has a great potential to be applied in functional electronics, including industrial polymer circuits and devices.

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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant NO. 51902040 and 52173236). This work was sponsored by the ‘Chenguang Program’ supported by the Shanghai Education Development Foundation and Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (Nos.18CGB09, 20CGB07).

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51902040 and 52173236). This work was sponsored by the ‘Chenguang Program’ supported by the Shanghai Education Development Foundation and Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (Nos. 18CGB09, 20CGB07).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials and Energy, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China

    Hui-gen Liu, Zhe-sheng Feng, Kang Wang, Yuan-ming Chen, Meng-yao Yang & Yan Wang

  2. Department of Printing and Packaging Engineering, Shanghai Publishing and Printing College, Yangpu District, Shanghai, 200093, People’s Republic of China

    Ji-qing Lian

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  1. Hui-gen Liu
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  7. Yan Wang
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Contributions

Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Hui-gen Liu and Kang Wang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Kang Wang. Project administration, conceptualization, and formal analysis were performed by Zhe-sheng Feng and Yan Wang. Visualization, Investigation, and Methodology were performed by Yuan-ming Chen, Meng-yao Yang, and Ji-qing Lian. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Zhe-sheng Feng or Yan Wang.

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Liu, Hg., Feng, Zs., Wang, K. et al. An accessible strategy for high-performance copper layer fabrication on polyphenylene oxide substrates via polydopamine functionalization and electroless deposition. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 33, 13012–13022 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-08243-4

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