Deposition of Bronze Microwires on Ultrananocrystalline Diamond (UNCD) Electrodes

Abstract

ABSTRACTAs technology advances, ever smaller wires are needed for devices, for applications in electronics, medicine, and clean energy. Many of these applications will require the precise control of not only wire shapes and diameters, but alloy compositions as well. The recently developed technique of Electroplate-and-Lift (E&L) Lithography developed by our group has demonstrated the capability of quickly and easily producing patterned micro- and nanowires of a large variety of electrodeposited materials. Here we report the first E&L- based synthesis of microwires with controlled alloy compositions, in the model system of bronze.Wires of several different compositions, ranging from 100% copper to 100% tin, were deposited on patterned ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD)TM templates, by varying the relative concentrations of copper and tin salts in the plating solution. All wires were deposited at 55oC, -1.0 V vs. the saturated calomel electrode (SCE). Wire morphology and elemental composition was observed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). For some alloy compositions, wires were interrupted at irregular intervals by nodules. All alloy wires were highly enriched in copper relative to the solution composition.