Direct Selective Wet Metallization on Glass by Controlling the Hydrophilicity of Glass Surface: Effect of Contact Angle on the Performance of Electroless Deposition

This paper describes a unique and facile wet process to realize directly selective electroless deposition (ELD) on glass by controlling surface hydrophilicity and applying silane-compound equipped Pd nano-particles. In particular, 1H,1H,2H,2H- perfluorooctyltriethoxysilane (PFOTES) is formed to create a superhydrophobic surface on glass. Then the super hydrophobic surface is laser-patterned to allow partial glass surface naked. These exposed area is then activated by a self-attachable Pd nanoparticles because they are surrounded by amino-silane compound. Finally the Pd-activated area is metallized via ELD. Characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM), water contact angle (WCA), optical microscope (OM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS), it is found when the glass is coated with a thin 300 μm- TiO
₂
(Ti-300) film and grafted with PFOTES, the WCA could exceeds 150°, while the WCA of the surface formed by small TiO
₂
particles and PFOTES grafting lie between 110° to 140°. The superhydrophobic surface can repel Pd activators and thus result in no ghost plating. By contract, in the samples with less hydrophobic surface, ELD can occur randomly on unwanted area.