Low-resistance films of polyimides with impregnated copper sulfide

Surface modification of polyimides has been used to obtain better interaction with an inorganic material. Copper sulfide incorporation onto the surface of commercial Kapton (R) polyimide showed that treatment with base was necessary for adherence of the copper sulfide to the polymeric matrix. The optimized conditions for composite preparation, obtained by response surface methodology, was pH 1.4 at 80 degreesC for 3.67 h. Using these conditions, we obtained electrical resistance as low as 1.0 ohm for CuS\Kapton (R) composites. These optimized conditions were used to prepare other low-resistance polyimide composites. The resulting composites were analyzed by photoelectron spectroscopy. The presence of S(2p) and Cu(2p) peaks demonstrated the incorporation of copper sulfide onto the polyimide surface. Scanning electron microphotographs and the images from atomic force microscopy showed a homogeneous CuS distribution in all composites.