Patent ID: 7258899

Claim:
The method of preparing continuous thin metallic films upon porous substrate surfaces which includes the steps of: (a) selecting a porous substrate having open voids exposed to a surface of said porous substrate, said open voids having a minimum diameter of at least 2.5 angstroms and a minimum depth that is greater than the respective minimum diameter; (b) selecting a precursor selected from the group consisting of a monomer, a comonomer, and combinations thereof, said precursor having one or more metallic components and dissolving said precursor in a liquid solvent to create a mixture of said precursor in solution; (c) wetting said surface of said porous substrate with said precursor solution to coat said porous substrate; (d) removing said liquid solvent from said precursor solution through removal of solvent from said surface to provide a substantially solvent-free residue of said precursor on said porous substrate; (e) providing a plasma reaction chamber with a pair of spaced apart electrodes therewithin or other suitable mechanism for producing the plasma glow and with said reaction chamber having a configuration for supporting a plasma glow therewithin and for receiving said precursor coated porous substrate; (f) introducing said precursor coated porous substrate into said reaction chamber; (g) evacuating the atmosphere from within said reaction chamber and applying RF energy across said electrodes to initiate a plasma glow zone and maintaining said plasma glow with said application of RF energy while simultaneously introducing a plasma supporting gas to said plasma reaction chamber; and (h) said plasma glow converting said precursor to dissociated form through separation of said one or more metallic components from said precursor to form a deposit consisting essentially of said one or more metallic components in elemental form as a cohesive film on the surface of said substrate, the combination of the cohesive film on said porous substrate forming a coated substrate media, said coated substrate media allowing fluid transport into and out from said open voids.