The Interactions between Formic Acid Vapor and Metallic Surface

This report deals with the interactions between formic acid vapor and the surface of commonly used highly conductive metals, Cu and A1. Oxidized copper surface can be perfectly transformed to porous and hydrophilic pure copper at low temperatures down to 160°C using modified formic acid vapor treatment with Pt catalysts, which can be referred to hydrogen radicals decomposed from HCOOH. As for A1, low water contact angle down to 9° can be obtained on sputtered Al surface through VUV irradiation with formic acid vapor. A1-OH and carboxylate ligands account for that. The effect of formic acid vapor pre-treatment on direct metal-metal bonding will be also introduced.