Electrodeposition of two-dimensional silver films under dihexadecyl phosphate monolayers

A systematic study of silver ion electrodeposition at the surface of silver nitrate solutions coated by dihexadecyl phosphate (DHP) Langmuir films is presented. We study the morphology of the deposits and their growth rates, under potentiostatic conditions, as a function of several physical and chemical parameters, namely, the surface pressure of the monolayers, the electric voltage and the silver ions concentrations. An in situ microscopic observation reveals that two competitive processes occur simultaneously during the formation of the silver deposits: their two-dimensional (2D) growth along the interface and their three-dimensional (3D) thickening.