Influence of triazole stabilizers on the surface morphology of environmentally benign electroless nano copper deposition

Abstract

In this work, we report the effect of triazole stabilizers: aminotriazole (ATA), benzotriazole (BTA), and tolytriazole (TTA) on the electroless deposition of copper thin film using xylitol containing copper methanesulphonate bath. Eco-friendly glyoxylic acid was used as reducing agent instead of p-formaldehyde which is carcinogenic. Potassium hydroxide was used for adjusting the pH, since it has the advantage of preventing the formation of insoluble byproducts in electroless bath, which is possible when NaOH is used. The electroless bath was optimized by addition of 1 ppm concentration of stabilizers, at 45°C and pH of 13.25 ± 0.25. Surface roughness, crystallite size and specific surface area of copper deposits were studied by the atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The anodic peak potential and corrosion current values were analyzed by the cyclic voltammetry and the Tafel plot. ATA was found to inhibit copper deposition while both BTA and TTA accelerated it. The crystallite size and surface roughness values were found to be less than 100 nanometer (nm) compare to the xylitol plain bath. TTA resulted in a better surface, structural, physical and electrochemical property of copper deposition than ATA and BTA.