Continuous process for manufacturing graphene-mediated metal-plated polymer article

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10730070-B2
Application number	US-201815914224-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 7, 2018
Priority date	Nov 15, 2017
Publication date	Aug 4, 2020
Grant date	Aug 4, 2020

Abstract

A continuous process for producing a surface-metalized polymer article, comprising: (a) continuously immersing a polymer article into a graphene dispersion comprising multiple graphene sheets dispersed in a liquid medium for a period of immersion time and then retreating the polymer article from the dispersion, enabling deposition of graphene sheets onto a surface of the polymer article to form a graphene-attached polymer article; (b) continuously moving the graphene-attached polymer article into a drying or heating zone to enable bonding of graphene sheets to said surface to form a graphene-covered polymer article; and (c) continuously moving the graphene-covered polymer article into a metallization zone where a layer of a metal is chemically, physically, electrochemically or electrolytically deposited onto a surface of the graphene-covered polymer article to form the surface-metalized polymer article. Step (a) may be preceded by a surface treatment of the polymer article.

First claim

We claim:

1. A continuous process for producing a surface-metalized polymer article, said process comprising:
a) continuously immersing a polymer article into a graphene dispersion comprising multiple graphene sheets dispersed in a liquid medium for a period of immersion time and then retreating said polymer article from said dispersion, enabling deposition of graphene sheets onto a surface of said polymer article to form a graphene-attached polymer article wherein said liquid medium comprises an acid, an oxidizer, a metal salt, or a combination thereof that is dissolved in said liquid medium, and said acid is selected from permanganic acid, phosphoric acid, nitric acid, carboxylic acid, acetic acid, and ascorbic acid, and combinations thereof;
b) continuously moving the graphene-attached polymer article into a drying or heating zone to enable bonding of graphene sheets to said surface to form a graphene-covered polymer article; and
c) continuously moving said graphene-covered polymer article into a metallization zone where a layer of a metal is chemically, physically, electrochemically or electrolytically deposited onto a surface of said graphene-covered polymer article to form said surface-metalized polymer article.

2. The process of claim 1 , further comprising, prior to step (a), an extra step of continuously moving a polymer article into a surface treatment zone for treating a surface of said polymer article.

3. The process of claim 2 , wherein said extra step includes subjecting a surface of the polymer article to a grinding treatment, an etching treatment, and combinations thereof.

4. The process of claim 2 , wherein said extra step includes subjecting a surface of the polymer article to an etching treatment using an etchant selected from an acid, an oxidizer, a metal salt, and combinations thereof.

5. The process of claim 2 , wherein said extra step includes subjecting a surface of the polymer article to an etching treatment that does not contain chromic acid or chromosulfuric acid.

6. The process of claim 2 , wherein said extra step includes subjecting a surface of the polymer article to an etching treatment using an etchant selected from an acid, an oxidizer, a metal salt, or a combination thereof under a mild etching condition wherein etching is conducted at a sufficiently low temperature for a sufficiently short period of time so as not to create micro-caverns having an average size greater than 0.1 μm.

7. The process of claim 1 , further including a step of decorating said graphene sheets with nanoscaled particles or coating of a catalytic metal, having a diameter or thickness from 0.5 nm to 100 nm, selected from cobalt, nickel, copper, iron, manganese, tin, zinc, lead, bismuth, silver, gold, palladium, platinum, an alloy thereof, and combinations thereof.

8. The process of claim 1 , wherein said graphene dispersion further comprises an adhesive resin having an adhesive-to-graphene weight ratio from 1/5000 to 1/10.

9. The process of claim 1 , wherein said graphene dispersion comprises multiple graphene sheets dispersed in a liquid medium wherein said multiple graphene sheets contain single-layer or few-layer graphene sheets selected from a pristine graphene material having essentially zero % of non-carbon elements, or a non-pristine graphene material having 0.001% to 25% by weight of non-carbon elements wherein said non-pristine graphene is selected from graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, graphene fluoride, graphene chloride, graphene bromide, graphene iodide, hydrogenated graphene, nitrogenated graphene, doped graphene, chemically functionalized graphene, or a combination thereof and said graphene dispersion further contains one or multiple species selected from (i) an adhesive resin dissolved or dispersed in said liquid medium, wherein an adhesive-to-graphene weight ratio is from 1/5000 to 1/10; (ii) an etchant selected from an acid, an oxidizer, a metal salt, or a combination thereof; (iii) nanoscaled particles or coating of a catalytic metal, having a diameter or thickness from 0.5 nm to 100 nm, selected from cobalt, nickel, copper, iron, manganese, tin, zinc, lead, bismuth, silver, gold, palladium, platinum, an alloy thereof, or a combination thereof; and (iv) combinations thereof.

10. The process of claim 9 , wherein said nanoscaled particles or coating of a catalytic metal are deposited or decorated on surfaces of said multiple graphene sheets.

11. The process of claim 9 , wherein said doped graphene contains nitrogen-doped, boron-doped, phosphorus-doped graphene, and combinations thereof.

12. The process of claim 1 , wherein said surface-metalized polymer article is selected from a faucet, a spout, a shower head, a tubing, a pipe, a connector, an adaptor, a kitchen sink, a bathroom sink, a bathtub cover, a sink cover, a bathroom accessory, a kitchen tool, an automobile body part, automobile decorative trim, an automobile decorative accessory, an electronic device housing, furniture, hardware, jewelry, a button and a knob.

13. The process of claim 1 , wherein said polymer article contains a plastic, a rubber, a thermoplastic elastomer, a polymer matrix composite, a rubber matrix composite, and combinations thereof.

14. The process of claim 1 , wherein said polymer article contains a thermoplastic, a thermoset resin, an interpenetrating network, a rubber, a thermoplastic elastomer, a natural polymer, and combinations thereof.

15. The process of claim 1 , wherein said polymer component contains a plastic selected from acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (ABS), styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer (SAN), polycarbonate, polyamide or nylon, polystyrene, high-impact polystyrene (HIPS), polyacrylate, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyacetal, polyester, polyether, polyether sulfone, poly ether ether ketone (PEEK), poly sulfone, polyphenylene oxide (PPO), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyimide, polyamide imide, polyurethane, polyurea, and combinations thereof.

16. The process of claim 1 , wherein said plated metal is selected from copper, nickel, aluminum, chromium, tin, zinc, titanium, silver, gold, alloys thereof, and combinations thereof.

Assignees

• Nanotek Instruments Inc
• Global Graphene Group Inc

Inventors

• Lin Yi-Jun
• Lee Shaio-Yen
• Jhong Yao-De
• Zhamu Aruna
• Jang Bor Z

Classifications

• C25D5/56

  of plastics · CPC title

• C09D7/61

  inorganic · CPC title

• B05D3/101

  Pretreatment of polymeric substrate · CPC title

• C23C18/1653

  Two or more layers with at least one layer obtained by electroless plating and one layer obtained by electroplating · CPC title

• C09D7/66

  characterised by particle size · CPC title