Surface morphology of spatiotemporal stripe patterns formed by Ag/Sb co-electrodeposition

During Ag/Sb co-electrodeposition, various spatiotemporal patterns similar to those in reaction–diffusion systems are observed on the metal electrode surface. These patterns all consist of dark and light stripes. In this paper, we report the results of a surface morphology analysis of three spatiotemporal stripe patterns for which we have already specified the stripe wavelength and the stripe velocity. The results indicate that the patterns include convexo-concave areas accompanying the dark and light stripe configuration. Furthermore, in addition to the morphological measurement in the scale of the patterns, the local measurement of morphology of the internal surface of the patterns was carried out. The surfaces of all three spatiotemporal stripe patterns commonly have a random structure which is similar to a microstructure due to the phase separation in metal alloys. This finding suggests that the formation of these spatiotemporal stripe patterns might be due to the phase separation of Ag and Sb.