Splitting nucleation and growth potentials for controlling electrochemical deposition of Cu nanoparticles
Abstract
Uniformity in the size distribution of Cu nanoparticles plays an important role in enhancing the outstanding properties of Cu for diverse applications. This study proposes a simple method to control the size of Cu nanoparticles in an electrochemical deposition system using copper sulfate CuSO4 as the copper source in a LiClO4 electrolyte solution. The electrochemical kinetics of copper nucleation and growth on the ITO electrode were carefully analyzed using the LSV and CA processes combined with AFM characterization. Subsequently, the influence of pH conditions on the splitting factor of the nucleation and growth potentials was investigated, revealing that a pH value of 2.7 provides the optimal separation of potential for these two processes. The size of the deposited copper nanoparticles can be controlled by conducting two consecutive CA processes at distinct nucleation and growth potentials. Electrochemical deposition with an optimized pH approach provides a simple and straightforward method to synthesize copper nanoparticles with monodispersity and minimizes the risk of contamination by stabilizers.
