Electrochemical Assembly of Thiol-based Monolayer on Copper for Epoxy-Cu Adhesion Improvement

This work reports on the adhesion enhancement effects of self-assembled organothiol treatment on copper/epoxy interfaces, as well as a significant reduction in treatment time under the influence of electric potential. The interfacial adhesion has a 20-fold enhancement through the treatment due to improved linkage between the copper substrate and epoxy layer by chemisorbed organothiol molecules. The treatment time was greatly reduced by a factor of 32 from 16 hours to 30 minutes, thanks to the electrical field assisted method. This was achieved without compromising the maximum adhesion strength, which was shown to be in the order of 97.2 Jm(-2). (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved