In order to replace the traditional pretreatment process for electroless plating of chromic acid roughening and colloid palladium activation, the metal layer was prepared on the surface of nylon (PA10T) through a green method. The distribution of functional groups and the change of valence bonds on the nylon surface were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectrometry and X ray photoelectron spectrometry, and then a model was established to illustrate the metallization process. The results show that the roughening system of sulphuric acid-ethanol can be used to achieve the effect of roughening, make the amide bond rupture and generate amino and carboxyl in PA10T. When the palladium-free activation process is adopted, the surface activation of nylon could be achieved by the coordination of Cu²⁺ with amino groups and carboxyl groups. The simple and environmentally friendly method mentioned above could get a good adhesion of the metal coating on the PA10T surface, the coating binding force reaches 537 N·cm^-2 which is tested by electronic universal material testing machine.