This book chronicles the proceedings of the 5th and 6th symposia on Metallized Plastics: Fundamental and Applied Aspects, held in May 1996 and September 1997 respectively. This volume contains 29, carefully reviewed, revised and up-dated papers which were presented at both symposia. The book is divided in the following three parts: Metallization Techniques and Properties of Metal Deposits; Spectroscopic Investigation of Interfacial Interactions; Surface Modification and Adhesion Aspects. Topics covered include: various metallization techniques for a variety of plastic substrates and simplification of electroless method by using plasma or UV laser pretreatment; various properties of metal deposits; investigation of metal-polymer interfaces using a variety of spectroscopic techniques; interaction of metals with self-assembled monolayers; study of early stages of metal-polymer interface formation; surface modification of plastics by a host of techniques including plasma, excimer laser, ion beams and characterization of modified plastics surfaces; surface modification of polymers used in the low Earth Orbit space environment; adhesion aspects of metallized plastics including a quantitative adhesion test for metal coated polymer fibers and nondestructive techniques for monitoring metallized plastics adhesion.