Electroless Ag deposition on the cell walls of carbon foam by a displacement method

To obtain efficient metalization of the surface and cell walls of carbon foam, an electroless silver displacement deposition method was investigated, in which a copper layer was first electroless-deposited and then displaced by silver. The purity of the silver coating, and the morphology, microstructure, mechanical strength and electrical conductivity of the resulting carbon foams were characterized by SEM, EDS, XRD, mechanical and conductivity tests. Results indicate that a uniform and continuous silver film is formed on the cell walls of the carbon foam with a better adhesion to the carbon compared to that obtained using the traditional one-step silver plating method. The coating is crystalline silver without copper or silver oxide. The conductivity and mechanical strength of these carbon foams increase from 700 to 2 055 S/cm and 0.54 to 1.05 MPa, respectively when the silver content is increased from 0 to 15.5 wt%.