Silvering and coppering of chemically inert textile materials by means of wet-chemical process

Abstract

The development of the wet-chemical silvering and coppering method on inert fiber surfaces and a number of usable materials (silver, copper and others) allows fabrication of several textile structures with functional characteristics. In order to analyse the silver and copper coating characteristics such as structure, homogeneity and crack formation, the surface morphology (SM) was investigated using the scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The chemical structuring of the surfaces (amount of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, silicium, copper and silver) is analysed with an energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Phase formation and crystalline properties of the films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) with a Cu-Kα radiation reflection geometry source. Furthermore, textile-chemical analyses for the wash fastness were carried out as well.