LMI™

Liquid Metal Ink catalyst provides greater activity while using far less precious metals.

LMI™is usable for many different fine metal plating applications, but most commonly for the initial catalyst deposition of a thin electroless copper layer essential for supporting the A-SAP™process.

LMI™ Background

From a technical prospective LMI™ is designed on a theoretical model of a unimolecular complex (capable of entertaining a unimolecular reaction) of a metal ion in its stable oxidation state hosted in an envelope of ligands that can provide a coordination number of 4 to 6 with the choice of a donor solvent without the restriction of dominant metal-ligand interaction.

Thermodynamic stability in the chromophore of the metal ion is achieved by competitive coordination with specific prejudice to palladiophilic ligands. These properties allow LMI™ to layer on single metal atoms until a uniform yet thin seed layer if formed. In most cases, this layer is non conductive.

Liquid Metal Ink:
No Metal Particles: Metal deposited one atom at a time.

Liquid Metal Ink Catalyst provides greater activity while using far less precious metals.

  • Only surface atoms are active catalyst sites. Atoms buried inside a particle are ‘wasted’ in terms of catalytic activity
  • Ratio of the surface area to volume of a sphere is 3/radius
  • As the radius of a particle grows the number of active surface molecules becomes far smaller
  • Averatek films maximize the number of atoms that are active catalyst sites

Manufacturing with LMI™

  • Supports both low volume prototype development and very high volumes
  • Supports continuous roll-to-roll. Supports most printing methods
  • Can engineer viscosity, wetting, and concentration over wide ranges

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