Investigations on the effect of electrode gap variation over pulse-electrodeposition profile

• Published in: IOP conference series. Materials Science and Engineering Vol. 653; no. 1; pp. 12046 - 12051
• Main Authors: Jyoti Biswal, Hrudaya, Vundavilli, Pandu R, Gupta, Ankur
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 01.11.2019
• ISSN: 1757-8981; 1757-899X
• DOI: 10.1088/1757-899X/653/1/012046

The influence of gap between the cathode and anode over electrodeposition profile was investigated using both the experimental and simulation techniques. Experiments were performed through deposition of copper on stainless steel substrates while varying the electrode distance with a constant applied voltage. Pulse current waveform with 70% duty cycle was applied for better uniform deposition. Complementary 3D model was developed to simulate the effect of electrode distance on current density distribution and thickness of deposition with COMSOL Multiphysics 5.3a. For the chosen experimental conditions, an optimum inter-electrode distance of 60 mm was identified for maximum deposition and good surface morphology. In spite of the application of pulsed current waveform, some amount of non-uniformity was encountered due to edge effect. Inter-electrode gap was demonstrated to be an important factor influencing the deposition profile by correlating experiments with simulation.