Potential electrodeposition

In a constant-potential electrodeposition the current has fallen to 20% of its initial value in 10 min. Estimate the time required for 99.9% deposition. 

Figure 26-8. Minimum components for a controlled potential electrodeposition.

A constant potential electrodeposition requires that three electrodes be present. What are they for ... 

Electrolysis cell fb r controlled potential electrodeposition into a mercury cathode and simultaneous removal of the electrodeposlted material into aqueous solution. From M. Chemla and J, Pauly, Bull. Soc. Chim., France 20, 432... 

Other organic solvents used for the electrodeposition of CdSe include ethylene glycol [63] and diethylene glycol [64] containing Cd and Se02. Sometimes, EDTA is employed to complex with Cd ". Both constant-potential electrodeposition and pulse electrodeposition were used. 

At potentials positive to the bulk metal deposition, a metal monolayer-or in some cases a bilayer-of one metal can be electrodeposited on another metal surface this phenomenon is referred to as underiDotential deposition (upd) in the literature. Many investigations of several different metal adsorbate/substrate systems have been published to date. In general, two different classes of surface stmetures can be classified (a) simple superstmetures with small packing densities and (b) close-packed (bulklike) or even compressed stmetures, which are observed for deposition of the heavy metal ions Tl, Hg and Pb on Ag, Au, Cu or Pt (see, e.g., [63, 64, 65, 66, 62, 68, 69 and 70]). In case (a), the metal adsorbate is very often stabilized by coadsorbed anions typical representatives of this type are Cu/Au (111) (e.g. [44, 45, 21, 22 and 25]) or Cu/Pt(l 11) (e.g. [46, 74, 75, and 26 ]) It has to be mentioned that the two dimensional ordering of the Cu adatoms is significantly affected by the presence of coadsorbed anions, for example, for the upd of Cu on Au(l 11), the onset of underiDotential deposition shifts to more positive potentials from 80"to Br and CE [72]. 

Solvent for Electrolytic Reactions. Dimethyl sulfoxide has been widely used as a solvent for polarographic studies and a more negative cathode potential can be used in it than in water. In DMSO, cations can be successfully reduced to metals that react with water. Thus, the following metals have been electrodeposited from their salts in DMSO cerium, actinides, iron, nickel, cobalt, and manganese as amorphous deposits zinc, cadmium, tin, and bismuth as crystalline deposits and chromium, silver, lead, copper, and titanium (96—103). Generally, no metal less noble than zinc can be deposited from DMSO. 

One potential difficulty with CF-EF is the electrodeposition of the particles at the electrode away from the filtration medium. This phenomenon, if allowed to persist, will result in performance decay of CF-EF with respect to maintenance of the electric field. Several approaches such as momentaiy reverses in polarity, protection of the electrode with a porous membrane or filter medium, and/or utilization of a high fluid shear rate can minimize electrodeposition. 

ZnTe The electrodeposition of ZnTe was published quite recently [58]. The authors prepared a liquid that contained ZnGl2 and [EMIM]G1 in a molar ratio of 40 60. Propylene carbonate was used as a co-solvent, to provide melting points near room temperature, and 8-quinolinol was added to shift the reduction potential for Te to more negative values. Under certain potentiostatic conditions, stoichiometric deposition could be obtained. After thermal annealing, the band gap was determined by absorption spectroscopy to be 2.3 eV, in excellent agreement with ZnTe made by other methods. This study convincingly demonstrated that wide band gap semiconductors can be made from ionic liquids. 

They form a monolayer that is rich in defects, but no second monolayer is observed. The interpretation of these results is not straightforward from a chemical point of view both the electrodeposition of low-valent Ge Iy species and the formation of Au-Ge or even Au Ge h compounds are possible. A similar result is obtained if the electrodeposition is performed from GeGl4. There, 250 20 pm high islands are also observed on the electrode surface. They can be oxidized reversibly and disappear completely from the surface. With Gel4 the oxidation is more complicated, because the electrode potential for the gold step oxidation is too close to that of the island electrodissolution, so that the two processes can hardly be distinguished. The gold step oxidation already occurs at -i-lO mV vs. the former open circuit potential, at h-485 mV the oxidation of iodide to iodine starts. 

In the reductive regime, a strong, apparently irreversible, reduction peak is observed, located at -1510 mV vs. the quasi reference electrode used in this system. With in situ STM, a certain influence of the tip on the electrodeposition process was observed. The tip was therefore retracted, the electrode potential was set to -2000 mV, and after two hours the tip was reapproached. The surface topography that we obtained is presented in Figure 6.2-14. 

It is apparent (Fig. 1.21) that at potentials removed from the equilibrium potential see equation 1.30) the rate of charge transfer of (a) silver cations from the metal to the solution (anodic reaction), (b) silver aquo cations from the solution to the metal (cathodic reaction) and (c) electrons through the metallic circuit from anode to cathode, are equal, so that any one may be used to evaluate the rates of the others. The rate is most conveniently determined from the rate of transfer of electrons in the metallic circuit (the current 1) by means of an ammeter, and if / is maintained constant it can eilso be used to eveduate the extent. A more precise method of determining the quantity of charge transferred is the coulometer, in which the extent of a single well-defined reaction is determined accurately, e.g. by the quantity of metal electrodeposited, by the volume of gas evolved, etc. The reaction Ag (aq.) -t- e = Ag is utilised in the silver coulometer, and provides one of the most accurate methods of determining the extent of charge transfer. 

These considerations have been based entirely on thermodynamics and take no account of the overpotential, which is dependent on the rate of the process and the nature of the surface at which the reaction occurs. For this reason, the rate of reduction of HjO or HjO is usually low, and remains so to potentials from 0-5 to 1-OV below that given in equation 12.1. Even so, the instability of water is an insuperable obstacle to electrodepositing... 

At the start the cathode is invariably a metal different from that to be deposited. Frequently, the aim is to coat a base metal with a more noble one, but it may not be possible to do this in one step. When a metal is immersed in a plating bath it will corrode unless its potential is sufficiently low to suppress its ionisation. Fortunately, a low rate of corrosion is tolerable for a brief initial period. There are cases where even when a cathode is being plated at a high cathodic (nett) current density, the substrate continues to corrode rapidly because the potential (determined by the metal deposited) is too high. No satisfactory coating forms if the substrate dissolves at a high rate concurrently with electrodeposition. This problem can be overcome by one or more of the following procedures ... 

For ruthenium, electrolytes based on ruthenium sulphamate or nitrosyl-sulphamate have been described, but the most useful solutions currently available are based on the anionic complex (H2 0 Cl4 Ru N Ru-Cl4-OH2) . The latter solutions operate with relatively high cathode efficiency to furnish bright deposits up to a thickness of about 0-005 0 mm, which are similar in physical characteristics to electrodeposited rhodium and have shown promise in applications for which the latter more costly metal is commonly employed. Particularly interesting is the potential application of ruthenium as an alternative to gold or rhodium plating on the contact members of sealed-reed relay switches. 

Although the mechanisms discussed above are still topics of debate, it is now firmly established that the electrodeposition of conducting polymers proceeds via some kind of nucleation and phase-growth mechanism, akin to the electrodeposition of metals.56,72-74 Both cyclic voltammetry and potential step techniques have been widely used to investigate these processes, and the electrochemical observations have been supported by various types of spectroscopy62,75-78 and microscopy.78-80... 

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