Metal plating is a well-assessed and widespread technology. Though being a mature process (Ag plating is in fact the first known application of Volta's battery in 1801, Al electrolysis was used to fabricate Napoleon III's tableware for very special occasions at the imperial French court, present-day decorative- and hard- Cr electrodeposition thrive on a patent dating back to 1860), its successful implementation in many cutting-edge technologies seems the only viable approach to certain material fabrication issues, especially in the nanoscale (e.g. state-of-the-art and next-generation ULSI technologies). Curiously, in most cases, industrial success of this class of processes is achieved at the cost of using extremely toxic and polluting additives. This is essentially due to the poor fundamental knowledge of the physico-chemical basis of electrochemical metal growth and, in particular, of its dynamics. In this study we wish to highlight, from both the mathematical and the experimental points of view, the fact that - owing to the peculiarities of the coupled morphological and chemical dynamic processes going on at the electrochemical interface during metal plating at controlled potential - the application of a small sinusoidal forcing term is able to drive the morphology of the growing film towards the industrially desirable surface finish in the way currently achieved only by non-green additives.
Frequency as the greenest additive for metal plating: mathematical and experimental study of forcing voltage effects on electrochemical growth dynamics
LACITIGNOLA, Deborah;
2011-01-01
Abstract
Metal plating is a well-assessed and widespread technology. Though being a mature process (Ag plating is in fact the first known application of Volta's battery in 1801, Al electrolysis was used to fabricate Napoleon III's tableware for very special occasions at the imperial French court, present-day decorative- and hard- Cr electrodeposition thrive on a patent dating back to 1860), its successful implementation in many cutting-edge technologies seems the only viable approach to certain material fabrication issues, especially in the nanoscale (e.g. state-of-the-art and next-generation ULSI technologies). Curiously, in most cases, industrial success of this class of processes is achieved at the cost of using extremely toxic and polluting additives. This is essentially due to the poor fundamental knowledge of the physico-chemical basis of electrochemical metal growth and, in particular, of its dynamics. In this study we wish to highlight, from both the mathematical and the experimental points of view, the fact that - owing to the peculiarities of the coupled morphological and chemical dynamic processes going on at the electrochemical interface during metal plating at controlled potential - the application of a small sinusoidal forcing term is able to drive the morphology of the growing film towards the industrially desirable surface finish in the way currently achieved only by non-green additives.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
