Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Assisted Metallization toward Design of Electronic Components

This review paper introduces recent progress on metallization of electrically non-conductive materials by a supercritical CO2 (ScCO2) assisted metallization for design of novel electronic devices. In Ni-P metallization of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) textiles, ScCO2 is used as the solvent in the catalyzation step to allow formation of catalyst seeds inside the PET structure. This eventually promotes interactions between the Ni-P coating and the PET surface. In Ni-P metallization of nylon 6,6 textile, ScCO2 is used as the solvent in the catalyzation step and functions with surfactants to emulsify the electroless plating solution in the metal deposition step. Integration of biocompatible Pt and silk textiles is achieved by the ScCO2 metallization toward components in biomedical devices. Lastly, metallization of three-dimensional (3D) printed polymer structures is presented to demonstrate the applicability in fast and low cost fabrication of electronic components.