Prior to electroless copper plating on substrates containing copper, an aqueous composition containing select imidazole compounds is applied to the substrate. The aqueous composition containing the select imidazole compounds counteract passivation of the copper on the substrate to improve the electroless copper plating process.

Materials and methods for coating an electrochemically active electrode material for use in a lithium-ion battery are provided. In one example, an electrochemically active electrode material comprises: a polymer coating applied directly to an exterior surface of the electrochemically active electrode material; a metal plating catalyst adhered to the continuous polymer; and a continuous metal coating that completely covers the metal catalyst and continuous polymer coating. The electrochemically active electrode material may comprise a powder comprising one or more secondary particles, and the polymer and metal coatings may be applied to exterior surfaces of these secondary particles.

Provided herein is a method to printed electronics, and more particularly related to printed electronics on flexible, porous substrates. The method includes applying a coating compound comprising poly (4-vinylpyridine) (P4VP) and SU-8 dissolved in an organic alcohol solution to one or more surface of a flexible, porous substrate, curing the porous substrate at a temperature of at least 130 C. such that the porous substrate is coated with a layer of said coating compound, printing a jet of a transition metal salt catalyst solution onto one or more printing sides of the flexible, porous substrate to deposit a transition metal salt catalyst onto the one or more printing sides, and submerging the substrate in an electroless metal deposition solution to deposit the metal on the flexible, porous substrate, wherein the deposited metal induces the formation of one or more three-dimensional metal-fiber conductive structures within the flexible, porous substrate.

The present invention provides a conductive laminate for a touch panel which includes a substrate, and a patterned metal layer which is visually recognized to have greater blackness when viewed from the substrate side; a touch panel; and a transparent conductive laminate. The conductive laminate includes a substrate which has two main surfaces; a patterned plated layer which is disposed on at least one main surface of the substrate and has a functional group that interacts with metal ions; and a patterned metal layer which is disposed on the patterned plated layer, in which the patterned plated layer includes a metal component constituting the patterned metal layer and the ratio of the average peak intensity resulting from the metal component contained in the patterned plated layer to the average peak intensity resulting from the metal component constituting the patterned metal layer is in a range of 0.5 to 0.95.

A silver-coated particle (P1) is provided. The silver-coated particle (P1) includes a core particle (2) made of a resin particle or an inorganic particle and a silver coating layer (1) formed on a surface of the core particle (2), wherein, an amount of silver contained in the silver coating layer (1) is 5 to 90 parts by mass with respect to 100 parts of the silver-coated particle (P1), a crystallite diameter of the silver, which is calculated from a diffraction line obtained by filling a sample holder belonging to an X-ray diffraction apparatus with the silver-coated particle (P1); and irradiating X-ray in a range of 2/=30 to 120 deg., is in a range of 35 nm to 200 nm.

A method for making a fiber electrically conductive comprises the steps of: (a) providing a fiber having a negative electric charge at the surface of the fiber, (b) applying to the fiber a substance (such as a polyelectrolyte) which provides a layer of said substance on the fiber and changes the electric charge at the surface of the fiber from negative to positive, wherein said substance is not chitosan, and (c) making the surface of the fiber electrically conductive with a metal, wherein the metal of step (c) is provided in the form of metal ions and wherein a reducing agent (for example) is employed to reduce the metal ions to elemental metal. Fabrics formed from conductive fibers are also provided.

An object is to coat a target position on a substrate with a dense film. In order to achieve the object, while a substrate on which a base containing a coating material is formed is transported, an auxiliary agent is applied to the substrate, and then a main agent containing a coating material is applied to the substrate to react the main agent with the auxiliary agent, so that a portion on the substrate where the base is formed is coated with the coating material.

A method of manufacturing a conductive laminate includes extracting a long flexible substrate from a roll on which the flexible substrate is wound, forming a to-be-plated layer precursor layer on at least one main surface of the flexible substrate while the extracted flexible substrate is transported in the longitudinal direction, preparing a support, bonding the flexible substrate with a to-be-plated layer precursor layer to at least one main surface of the support, applying energy to the support with a to-be-plated layer precursor layer to obtain a support with a patterned layer to be plated, forming the support into a three-dimensional shape including a curved surface, and performing a plating treatment on the patterned layer to be plated to obtain the conductive laminate having a three-dimensional shape.

A process for metallizing a three-dimensional-printed polymeric structure includes soaking the three-dimensional-printed polymeric structure in a metal salt solution; transferring the three-dimensional polymeric structure to a solution comprising a first reducing agent; soaking the three-dimensional polymeric structure in a metal plating bath, the metal plating bath comprising a coordinating agent, a palladium or platinum salt, a pH buffer component, and a second reducing agent, to form a metal plated polymeric structure. A metal plated porous structure and an apparatus for improving metallization are also disclosed.

The present invention concerns a tin plating bath comprising tin ions; at least one complexing agent selected from the group consisting of pyrophosphate ions, linear polyphosphate ions and cyclic polyphosphate ions and a nitrogen and sulfur containing stabilizing additive and titanium (III) ions as a reducing agent suitable to reduce tin ions to metallic tin. The present invention further discloses a method of depositing tin or a tin alloy onto a surface of a substrate. The tin plating bath is particularly suitable to be used in the electronics and semiconductor industry.