Microgravimetric studies of silver electrocrystallization on polycrystalline gold surfaces

Cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry were performed in conjunction with electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance studies with the aim of making a new contribution to electrocrystallization studies. The nucleation and growth of silver on polycrystalline gold surfaces was selected as the probe system due to its simplicity and the availability of previous publications. To obtain thin films of silver on gold, the electrochemical experiments were conducted in an ammonium hydroxide solution (pH 11.8). The simultaneous current and mass variation transients obtained allowed for the proposal of a mathematical model, based on the well-established model of Scharifker and Hills (Electrochim. Acta 28 (1983) 879) model, in which parameters such as the number of nuclei and the nucleation rate were determined without contributions from non-faradic currents.