Abstract
Electrodeposition of aluminum and its alloys is of great interest in the aerospace, automobile, microelectronics, energy, recycle, and other industrial sectors, as well as for defense and, potentially, electrochemical printing applications. Here, for the first time, we report room-temperature electroplating of pure aluminum on copper and nickel substrates from an ionic liquid (IL) consisting of 1-Hexyl-3-methylimidazolium (HMIm) cation and bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (TFSI) anion, with a high concentration of 8 mol/L AlCl3 aluminum precursor. The aluminum deposits are shown to have a homogeneous and dense nanocrystalline structure. A quasi-reversible reaction is monitored, where the current is affected by both charge transfer and mass transport. The electrocrystallization of Al on Ni is characterized by instantaneous nucleation. The deposited Al layers are dense, homogeneous, and of good surface coverage. They have a nanocrystalline, single-phase Al (FCC) structure, with a dislocation density typical of Al metal. An increase in the applied cathodic potential from −1.3 to −1.5 V vs. Pt resulted in more than one order of magnitude increase in the deposition rate (to ca. 44 μm per hour), as well as in ca. one order of magnitude finer grain size. The deposition rate is in accordance with typical industrial coating systems.
Highlights
Being one of the abundant elements in the Earth crust, and with extensive uses in modern industry, the aluminum’s global production has risen over 50% in the last decade [1].With the growth of demand [2] grows the need of finding alternative manufacturing processes for aluminum that will lower the carbon footprint and high environmental impact [3].Electrodeposition of aluminum and its alloys is of great interest for different applications and industries, and of higher energy efficiency compared to mostly used technologies [4].Aluminum coatings are potential eco-friendly alternatives to cadmium coatings [4]
We report room-temperature electroplating of pure nanocrystalline aluminum on copper and nickel substrates from an [HMIm][TFSI]–AlCl3 ionic liquid (IL)
We report room-temperature electroplating of pure nanocrystalline aluminum on copper and nickel substrates from an [HMIm][TFSI]–AlCl3 room-temperature ionic liquid (RTIL)
Summary
Being one of the abundant elements in the Earth crust, and with extensive uses in modern industry, the aluminum’s global production has risen over 50% in the last decade [1].With the growth of demand [2] grows the need of finding alternative manufacturing processes for aluminum that will lower the carbon footprint and high environmental impact [3].Electrodeposition of aluminum and its alloys is of great interest for different applications and industries, and of higher energy efficiency compared to mostly used technologies [4].Aluminum coatings are potential eco-friendly alternatives to cadmium coatings [4]. Electrodeposition of aluminum and its alloys is of great interest for different applications and industries, and of higher energy efficiency compared to mostly used technologies [4]. With recent advances in 3D meniscus-confined electrodeposition (MCED) [5], 2D patterning, deposition, and repair of aluminum-based structures may become possible. This is of great interest because high-quality 3D-printed aluminum is hard to obtain via conventional powder or laser additive manufacturing processes, such as powder bed fusion and directed energy deposition [6,7], and since the high resolution attainable by MCED is not achievable by most other manufacturing processes
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