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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
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for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Gold coating on PVDF
Q. Hi,
I am doing a project on Electrochemical mechanical actuator. In this project, it is required to coat a PVDF layer with 100nm gold to increase the conductivity. But University is only providing me with 5nm of the coating. Is there anything I could do to increase the conductivity. Or is there any other metal which can be used instead of gold to sputter coat it. Is it possible? It would be of great help if there is any solution for this.
Thanks and Regards,
student - Geelong, Victoria, Australia
September 14, 2016
A. Hi Bhargav. I am not seeing enough detail to understand your problem or to answer your question...
Apparently you have a component that first has a layer of PVDF on it, and now you want to put a conductive layer on top of the insulating PVDF layer? I am not understanding what you mean when you say it needs a 100nm layer of gold but you can only do 5 nm. I guess you are saying that the school will only pay for 5% of the gold that you feel you need?
How did you decide you need 100 nm? What would be the requirements of a substitute coating? There are plenty of 'conductive coatings' -- virtually any coating of metal at all will be conductive. Do you have concerns about the adhesion of a gold layer sputtered onto PVDF?
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
September 2016
Q. Hi Ted,
Thanks for replying to my question. I am trying to replicate the project and I have a supporting document which states that the coating should be 100nm and yes, my university is only going to sponsor for 5nm. The procedure involves firstly coating of PVDF layer with a 100nm and then coat it with around 145nm of polypyrrole by supplying a constant current density of 0.05mA/cm^2 using a three electrode setup for 12 hours at -20 degrees. I hope I gave you all the information in fabricating the actuator.
Regards,
Bhargav Venkata.
student - Geelong, Victoria, Australia
September 15, 2016
A. Hi Bhargav,
How about copper or aluminum? Does it need to be gold on top? Normally we use a diffusion barrier but in this case a diffusion barrier could lower electrical conductivity. What is the maximum temperature the actuator will "see"?
Blake Kneedler
Feather Hollow Eng. - Stockton, California
January 1, 2017
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