Patent ID: 7087267

Claim:
A method of rendering a substrate catalytic to electroless metal deposition comprising the steps of: (a) depositing a ligating chemical agent on said substrate, which is capable of both binding to said substrate and ligating to an electroless plating catalyst; and (b) ligating said electroless plating catalyst to said ligating chemical agent, wherein said ligating chemical agent is a bifunctional molecular species of the form R 7 R 8 P(CH 2 ) n PO 3 R 9 R 10 , wherein n is between 1 and 20, and wherein R 7 and R 8 are substituted or unsubstituted alkyl groups, substituted or unsubstituted aryl groups, or substituted or unsubstituted heterocyclic groups, and may be the same or different, and wherein R 9 and R 10 are hydrogen atoms.