Influence of pulse plating parameters on the synthesis and preferred orientation of nanocrystalline zinc from zinc sulfate electrolytes

The influence of pulse electrodeposition parameters (current on-time T on, current off-time T off, and pulse current density J p) was investigated on the surface morphology and grain size of zinc electrodeposited from a sulfate bath containing polyacrylamide and thiourea additives. The grain size and surface morphology of zinc deposits were studied by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), and the preferred orientation of the deposits was studied by X-ray diffraction. At constant current off-time and pulse current density, the grain size decreased asymptotically with increasing current on-time. In contrast, increase in the current off-time at constant current on-time and pulse current density resulted in grain growth. A progressive decrease of the grain size was observed with increasing pulse current density at constant current on-time and off-time. Nanocrystalline zinc with an average grain size of 38 nm was obtained at a pulse current density of 1200 mA/cm 2. The crystallographic orientations developed were correlated with the change in the cathodic overpotential, the angle between the preferred oriented plane and the lowest energy of formation plane (0 0 0 2), and the pulse electrodeposition parameters.