PROCESS FOR DEPOSITING A METAL OR METAL ALLOY ON A SURFACE OF A SUBSTRATE INCLUDING ITS ACTIVATION

The present invention relates to a process for depositing a metal or metal alloy on at least one surface of a substrate comprising the steps of (a) providing said substrate; (b) treating the surface of said substrate with an activation solution comprising at least one source of metal ions selected from the group consisting of ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, platinum, copper, silver, nickel, cobalt, gold and mixtures thereof such that at least one portion of said metal ions is being adsorbed on the surface of said substrate; (c) treating the surface of said substrate obtained from step (b) with a treatment solution comprising i) at least one additive independently selected from the group consisting of thiols, thioethers, disulphides and sulphur containing heterocycles, and ii) at least one reducing agent suitable to reduce the metal ions adsorbed on the surface of said substrate selected from the group consisting of boron based reducing agents, sources of hypophosphite ions, hydrazine and hydrazine derivatives, ascorbic acid, iso-ascorbic acid, sources of formaldehyde, glyoxylic acid, sources of glyoxylic acid, glycolic acid, formic acid, sugars, and salts of aforementioned acids; and (d) treating the surface obtained from step (c) of said substrate with a metallizing solution comprising a solvent and at least one source of metal ions to be deposited such that a metal or metal alloy is deposited thereon. The process for substrate metallization is mostly useful in the electronics industry but also applicable in processes for the metallization of typical non-conductive substrates like plastics. The process is cost-effective and ecologically advantageous due to its reducing the necessary amount of overall chemicals. La présente invention concerne un procédé de dépôt d'un métal ou d'un alliage métallique sur au moins une surface d'un substrat, ce procédé comprenant les étapes consistant à : (a) fournir ledit substrat ; (b) traiter la surface dudit substrat à l'aide d'une solution d'activation comprenant au moins une source d'ions métalliques choisis dans le groupe constitué par le ruthénium, le rhodium, le palladium, l'osmium, l'iridium, le platine, le cuivre, l'argent, le nickel, le cobalt, l'or et des mélanges de ceux-ci, de sorte qu'au moins une partie desdits ions métalliques soit adsorbée sur la surface dudit substrat ; (c) traiter la surface dudit substrat obtenue à l'étape (b) à l'aide d'une solution de traitement comprenant i) au moins u