Effects of Temperature and Ultrasound on Nucleation Behavior during Electrochemical Synthesis of Copper Thin Films

Abstract

Temperature is an excellent tool for tuning the phase formation kinetics and hence structure and properties of synthesized materials. The effect of the said parameter with added sonication impact on the electrochemical synthesis of copper thin films has been investigated in the present study. Copper was electroplated on graphite and aluminum substrates from a simple aqueous binary sulfate electrolyte at sub-ambient temperatures in presence of an ultrasonic horn of 20 KHz frequency and 20% output of the total power. The prepared films were characterized by X-ray diffraction and electron microscopic methods i.e. atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Reaction kinetics and nucleation mechanism of film formation was investigated by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry.Mechanical properties and thermal stability of the films were analyzed by nano-indentation
and differential scanning calorimetry.