Particle-electrode surface interaction during nickel electrodeposition from suspensions containing SiC and SiO2 particles

The ex situ atomic force microscopy (AFM), secondary electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements were combined with the in situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements to reveal the interaction of solid particles present in the solution with the electrode surface during the nickel electrodeposition from the Watts’ plating bath and the influence of particles on the mode of the metal layer growth. Partly hydrophobic silicon carbide (SiC) particles codeposited with nickel giving rise in more uniform Ni deposits of finer crystallites with the orientation similar to those in nickel growing from pure bath. Dramatic changes in the nickel surface texture under the influence of hydrophilic silica particles were observed, despite the fact that those particles did not embed with nickel. The specific capacitance of the electric double layer (EDL) of the growing Ni layer increased mainly due to enhanced (1 1 0) oriented grains growth when SiO2 particles were interacting with the nickel surface.