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Abstract

The present application describes the development of a method for creating a continuous conductive metal layer on a surface of a component, the component preferably made of molded acrylonitrile butadiene styrene polymer (ABS) or polycarbonate/ABS (PC/ABS) blend, the method utilizing cold sintering. This method avoids the need for chromic acid etching pretreatment prior to the electroplating process. Continuous, conductive and thickness-controllable layers of metals such as Ni, Fe, Cu or Ni/Fe have been created on the plastic surface using the cold sintering. The method will also work with any other metal. Thus, molded ABS or PC/ABS parts can be further electroplated without the need to go through the undesirable etching process.

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