Preparation of CNFs surface to coat with copper by electroless process

In the present work, the effects of oxidative pretreatments of carbon nanofibers in different mineral acids were studied. It has been found that the pretreatment of carbon nanofibers was very important to obtain the different grain size copper nanoparticles on the CNF. This material was pretreated with three different oxidative solutions, in order to increase their specific surface: HNO3, KMnO4 + HNO3 and K2Cr2O7 + H2SO4. The highest oxidative coarsening conditions imply the highest active surface, increasing possible copper nucleation points. Sensitized solution has been NiCl2 instead of SnCl2, which was used in conventional electroless process. In all cases, electroless process was carried out at room temperature and pH of the plating solution was maintained at the value of 12.5. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.