Electroless Copper Coating of Zirconia Utilizing Palladium Catalyst

Electroless Cu coating of zirconia particles using a Pd 0 catalyst is investigated in this paper. Uncoated and Cu‐coated ZrO 2 particles are characterized by various analytical techniques to understand the mechanism of electroless Cu coating of ZrO 2 particles, which involves reduction of Pd 2+ on ZrO 2 particle surfaces by Sn 2+ to produce pure metallic Pd 0 clusters, which provide catalytic sites for Cu deposition. The concept of XPS core‐level binding energy shift due to small cluster size is utilized to predict the size of pure Pd 0 clusters. The electroless Cu‐coating process can be utilized in the future to produce Cu‐doped ZrO 2 particles required for various potential applications.