Provided is a composition for forming a plating base on which plating is applied without a pretreatment, especially any activation process for the plating base, conventionally believed to be necessary, as well as a thus-formed plating base and a method of forming a plating coat over the plating base. The plating base is a coating film formed by applying and drying a metal nanoparticle dispersion liquid or a metal nanoparticle dispersion ink in which metal nanoparticles are protected with a small amount of protecting agent. Thus, a metal film can be formed by plating without operations such as substrate cleaning or catalyst imparting and activating. Since it is not necessary to wash the substrate with acid or base solution or to heat-treat it at a high temperature, many variations of materials become available for the substrate.

There is provided a method for manufacturing a flexible electrode, the method comprising: cleaning a plastic substrate; forming a metal-oxide seed layer on the plastic substrate by sputtering a metal oxide on the plastic substrate; and forming a metal plating layer on the metal oxide seed layer using an electroless plating.

A self-cleaning transparent conductive surface includes a hydrophobic film and a metal nano-web coupled to the hydrophobic film. The metal nano-web imparts conductive properties to the surface of the film and texturing formed by either the hydrophobic film, substrate or metal nano-web create a super-hydrophobic surface. This super-hydrophobic and conductive surface may be created by etching and layering a metal nano-web over the surface of a hydrophobic film or a rigid substrate, the metal grid may the hydrophobic film or substrate may also be etched in a moth's eye pattern. Both the hydrophobic film or substrate and metal nano-web may be coated in a layer of hydrophobic material to further increase the hydrophobic effect.

The present invention relates to a method for fabricating blackened conductive patterns, which includes (i) forming a resist layer on a non-conductive substrate; (ii) forming fine pattern grooves in the resist layer using a laser beam; (iii) forming a mixture layer containing a conductive material and a blackening material in the fine pattern grooves; and (iv) removing the resist layer remained on the non-conductive substrate.

A plating method can improve adhesivity with a substrate. The plating method of performing a plating process on the substrate includes forming a vacuum-deposited layer 2A on the substrate 2 by performing a vacuum deposition process on the substrate 2; forming an adhesion layer 21 and a catalyst adsorption layer 22 on the vacuum-deposited layer 2A of the substrate 2; and forming a plating layer stacked body 23 having a first plating layer 23a and a second plating layer 23b which function as a barrier film on the catalyst adsorption layer 22 of the substrate 2. By forming the vacuum-deposited layer 2A, a surface of the substrate 2 can be smoothened, so that the vacuum-deposited layer 2A serving as an underlying layer can improve the adhesivity.

The invention relates to a method for depositing a metal M1 onto a carbon layer, as well as to a method for manufacturing an electrode for fuel cells and to a method for manufacturing a fuel cell. The method for depositing a metal M1 onto a porous carbon layer according to the invention includes a step of depositing said metal M1 by means of the electrochemical reduction of an electrolytic solution of a salt of the metal M1, and, prior to said step of depositing the metal M1 by means of electrochemical reduction, a step of depositing a metal M2 by means of chemical reduction using a reducing gas of a salt of the metal M2, the thermodynamic equilibrium potential between the ionic form of the salt of M2 and M2, E.sup.eq.sub.ionic form of the salt of M2/M2 being greater than the thermodynamic equilibrium potential between the ionic form of the salt of M1 and M1, E.sup.eq.sub.ionic form of the salt of M1/M1. The invention can be used, in particular, in the field of fuel cells.

The present invention provides a carrier-attached copper foil, wherein an ultrathin copper foil is not peeled from the carrier prior to the lamination to an insulating substrate, but can be peeled from the carrier after the lamination to the insulating substrate. A carrier-attached copper foil comprising a copper foil carrier, an intermediate layer laminated on the copper foil carrier, and an ultrathin copper layer laminated on the intermediate layer, wherein the intermediate foil is configured with a Ni layer in contact with an interface of the copper foil carrier and a Cr layer in contact with an interface of the ultrathin copper layer, said Ni layer containing 1,000-40,000 μg/dm.sup.2 of Ni and said Cr layer containing 10-100 μg/dm.sup.2 of Cr is provided.

Provided is a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device that improves the reliability of the semiconductor device under thermal stress and the assembly performance of the semiconductor device in manufacturing steps. The method includes the following: forming a first electrode by depositing a first conductive film onto one main surface of a semiconductor substrate and patterning the first conductive film; forming a first metal film corresponding to a pattern of the first electrode onto the first electrode; forming a second electrode by depositing a second conductive film onto the other main surface of the semiconductor substrate; forming a second metal film thinner than the first metal film onto the second electrode; and collectively forming a third metal film onto each of the first metal film and the second metal film by electroless plating.

A method for fabricating a metallic wire mesh touch sensor with reduced visibility. A metallic wire mesh is formed on a transparent substrate such that the surface of the metallic wires is roughened or textured, so as to cause high scattering of incident light, thereby minimizing specularly reflected light towards the user. The metal lines are formed over patterned catalytic photoresist. The rough or textured surface of the metallic wires is achieved by roughening or texturing the catalytic photoresist, by selecting parameters of electronless plating of copper, or both. An RMS surface roughness of about 50 nm would scatter approximately 70% of incident cyan light incident at 30°.

A plated material includes a base metal made from Cu or an alloy containing Cu as a main raw material, an underlayer made from Ni formed on the base metal, and an Ag plated layer formed on the underlayer. A thickness of the underlayer is 0.1 μm to 1.0 μm. A thickness of the Ag plated layer is 1.0 μm or less.