Graphene as a Reducing Agent for Electroless Plating of Metal

Electroless plating of metals is an important industry process. However, the reducing agents and chemicals needed for electroless plating comprise of non-biodegradable and bio-hazardous species which adds to the environmental-deterioration cost along with the price of the chemicals. We recently discovered that the electrochemical properties of Graphene can serve as an excellent reducing agent for electroless plating processes. We demonstrate the use of Graphene for Copper electroless plating in this work, and the resulting Copper layer possess better electrical and thermal properties than the Copper itself due to the presence of the Graphene. The theoretical basis of such technology as have been published elsewhere show that such technology can be applied to metals such as Nickel, Titanium, Aluminum, Gold, Silver, and Cobalt.