Conductive characters research of deposition surfaces of metallized microorganism cells

Microorganism cells with different shapes such as sphere, rod-shape and helical shape, can be metallized to form hollow conductive metal-coated microparts by an electroless deposition technique, but the conductive characters were difficult to research directly. The optimal deposition substrate was selected from 5 nonconductive materials. The components of the electroless layers of selected samples and cells were compared by SEM and EDX analyses. Then the conductive characters of 7 kinds of deposition layers used for microorganism cells were researched indirectly by measuring the resistivities of the surfaces of selected substrates. The results showed that the components of the layers of selected substrates and cells were basically same. Among these 7 deposition layers, the conductive capability of Cu with 100% Cu was highest and the conductive capability of NiFeP with Ni 76.08%, Fe 15.53%, P 8.38% (atom fraction) was lowest. Among 4 layers which contain Cu component, the conductive capability increased with the proportion of Cu, but did not match linear relation.