Rapid electroplating of insulators

Vincent Fleury (), Wesley A. Watters, Levy Allam and Thierry Devers
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Vincent Fleury: Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée, Ecole Polytechnique/CNRS
Wesley A. Watters: Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée, Ecole Polytechnique/CNRS
Levy Allam: Laboratoire de Physique Electronique, IUT de Chartres
Thierry Devers: Laboratoire de Physique Electronique, IUT de Chartres

Nature, 2002, vol. 416, issue 6882, 716-719

Abstract: Abstract Electrochemical techniques for depositing metal films and coatings1 have a long history2,3,4,5. Such techniques essentially fall into two categories, with different advantages and disadvantages. The first, and oldest, makes use of spontaneous redox reactions to deposit a metal from solution, and can be used on both insulating and metallic substrates. But the deposition conditions of these processes are difficult to control in situ, in part because of the variety of salts and additives present in the solution. The second approach—electroplating—uses an electric current to reduce metal ions in solution, and offers control over the quantity (and, to some extent, grain size) of deposited metal. But application of this technique has hitherto been restricted to conducting substrates. Here we describe an electroplating technique that permits coating of insulating substrates with metals having controlled grain size, thickness and growth speed. The basis of our approach is the progressive outward growth of the metal from an electrode in contact with the substrate, with the cell geometry chosen so that the electron current providing the reduction passes through the growing deposit. Such an approach would normally form dendritic or powdery deposits, but we identify a range of conditions in which uniform films rapidly form.

Date: 2002
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DOI: 10.1038/416716a

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