Study of Process for Electroless Silver Plating of Glass Fiber in the Presence of Silver Nitrate Activator

AgNO3 was used as an activator to replace conventional PdC12 activator for the electroless silver plating of glass fiber.The possible chemical reactions in the electroless plating were explored,while the effect of the coarsening liquid on the properties of the electroless Ag coating was studied as well.Moreover,the morphology and elemental composition of the Ag coating were analyzed using an electron microprobe,while the phase composition of the Ag coating was examined by means of X-ray diffraction.The results showed that it was feasible to prepare Ag-coated glass fibers with good coating-substrate adhesion and uniform composition by electroless Ag plating for 30 min in the presence of AgNO3 solution as the activator and 5 g NH4F plus 3 mL HC1 solution as the etching liquid.