Low Temperature Sonoelectrodeposition of Nanocrystalline Copper Deposit

Abstract

This paper investigates copper deposit from a simple aqueous solution at sub-ambient temperature in presence of ultrasound. A highly adherent, lusterious, dense and fully sintered layer of copper deposit with cluster sizes between 40-70 nm are confirmed by SEM and AFM studies. The X-ray diffraction pattern confirms the copper cyystallinity and the preferred growth orientation is the (1 1 1) direction.The melting property of the deposit was studied by a heating microscope. Softening started around 700°C as compared to the temperature of 900°C of commercial pure copper. To investigate the growth behavior of the deposit a 50 hours run by modulated temperature DSC was performed on the deposit. This result indicates that all the mechanism has occurred inside the solution. So it may be expected that the synergistic effect of low temperature, hydrogen evolution, over potential, high plasmon resonance leading to surface melting and high localized temperature and pressure may lead to such deposition