There were studied polyamide composites containing copper(II) oxide (CuO) and copper(II) acetoacetate Cu(acac)(2), which after laser irradiation became fully prepared for an electroless metallization process. The composites were produced by use of typical processing methods such as extrusion and injection moulding. They were then irradiated with various numbers of ArF excimer laser pulses (lambda = 193 nm) at different fluences. The metallization procedure of the laser-irradiated samples was performed by use of a commercial metallization bath and formaldehyde as a reducing agent. The samples were examined using the FTIR and XPS techniques. Examinations were focused on elucidation of possible chemical reactions between CuO and Cu(acac)(2), affected by both thermal processing and laser irradiation. It was found that CuO was efficiently reduced to CU(0) and that surface became highly active for the direct electroless metallization. A chemical reaction model for this reduction is proposed as well. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.