Effect of Processing Parameters on Deposition Rate and Current Efficiency of Electrodeposition Process of Highly Textured Silver Coating in an Non-cyanide Bath

Abstract

Effect of processing parameters on the deposition rate and current efficiency as well as on the texture was studied of silver coating on stainless steel 316 L prepared by electroplating in a cyanide- free bath. The crystallization degree and the grain size were determined by using XRD.The results show that the current efficiency, deposition rate and grain size all increase with the increasing silver nitrate concentration in the bath. On the other hand, the grain size also increases with the increasing potassium carbonate concentration, however until the potassium carbonate concentration is up to 95 g/L, the grain size starts to decrease again. The current efficiency and deposition rate show the same variation tendency as the grain size. In the contrast, the tendency of preferential orientation of crystal plane(111) increases firstly and then decreases with the increasing potash concentration.