4-(2-Aminoethyl)-benzene-1,2-diol films are known to adhere to a wide variety of substrate materials. This includes the material class of plastics as well as metals. Oxidative film formation from aqueous solutions results in films a few nanometers thick with a large number of functional groups making them ideal candidates to generate sandwich structures and act as adhesion promoters between incompatible material classes.
To fabricate metallized plastics, three key technologies are available to date. Plastic electroplating, physical vapor deposition method and electroless metallization by reduction of metal salts in solution are utilized.
In the present series of experiments, we investigated the influence of the different metallization processes, based on the use of the bioinspired adhesion promoter 4-(2-Aminoethyl)-benzene-1,2-diol, on the achievable metal layer quality and the bond strengths that can be achieved in the hybrids. Different plastics and metals were also included. Process advantages can be derived especially for the processes of electroplating and electroless metallization.