A simple method for acrylonitrile butadiene styrene metallization

The metallization of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) has been achieved using a new direct plating process that consisted of a previous treatment by polypyrrole (PPy) to transform the plastic conductor followed by direct copper electroplating. The deposition of PPy on ABS samples is reached chemically in a solution of pyrrole and iron(III) chloride as oxidant. The PPy synthesized is adherent to the plastic surfaces. Adherent copper layers with different thicknesses have been obtained on PPy/ABS at different electrolysis time. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis revealed that copper is deposited on PPy/ABS surface. SEM analysis shows that increasing the electrolysis time increases the copper coating thickness.