A Comparative Study of the Surface Morphology of an Electroless Copper Deposition Bath using a Green and a Non-Green Solvent

This article reports the comparative study of surface morphology of the copper deposits using a
green and a non-green solvent in an electroless copper deposition bath. The electroless copper plating
was studied electrochemically using polyhydroxylic alcohol, Glycerol as the complexing agent and the
reducing agents used are, a green solvent, Dimethylamine borane (DMAB) and anon-green solvent
formaldehyde. The pH of the copper methane sulphonate bath was maintained by using Potassium
hydroxide as the pH adjuster.The copper electroless bath was optimized by adding stabilizers at a
concentration of 1ppm at 11.50 ± 0.25 pH for DMAB and at 13.0 ± 0.25 pH for HCHO. Alanine and
Phenyl alanine are used as stabilizers. Their effects on plating bath were studied and reported. The
characterization (SEM, AFM, XRD and CV studies) shows that the deposition using DMAB contained
bath showed better and eco-friendly results than the formaldehyde used deposition bath.