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Mirror finish

I am looking for a way to make a smooth polymer surface highly reflective without compromising the smoothness of the surface. Do you have any suggestions of how to go about doing this? Sincerely, Kurt Grunwald University Wisconsin LaCrosse

Kurt Grunwald
- LaCrescent MN
1999

Kurt- In the 60's, NASA used a very thin layer of gold tint on the inside of spacesuit visors as filters (ever wonder why they looked so reflective from a distance?). This was produced by a very old process known as "silvering", which has been used to deposit nickel, gold, copper, and silver. See "Metal Finishing Guidebook and Directory" under "metallizing non-conductors". At least, that's where it used to be. I don't know about the newest ones. I personally have experience only with silver. This process utilizes a double-headed spray gun which sprays from one head the metal-containing solution and a "reducer" from the other head, forming a metallic film on the (properly prepared) target when they meet. Patrick Marks

Patrick Marks
- Chandler, Arizona
1999

If a metal coating such as Al, Ag, Au is acceptable, a PVD method will do it. Since you are on campus, go to a thin-films lab in EE or Physics dept. They are likely to have a sputter apparatus for doing small samples. Or elase, go to the SEM/TEM lab where they coat biological samples with thin gold films using the sputter apparatus for TEM. Good luck!

Mandar Sunthankar
- Fort Collins, Colorado
1999

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