The Role of Coulombic Forces in Quasi-Two Dimensional Electrochemical Deposition

Abstract

ABSTRACTRecent work demonstrates the relevant influence of convection during growth pattern formation in thin-layer electrochemical deposition. Convection is driven mainly by coulombic forces due to local charges at the tip of the aggregation and by buoyancy forces due to concentration gradients. Here we study through physical experiments and numerical modeling the regime under which coulombic forces are important. In the experimental measurements fluid motion near the growing tips of the deposit is visualized with neutrally buoyant latex spheres and its speed measured with videomicroscope tracking techniques and image processing software. The numerical modeling consists in the solution of the 2D dimensionless Nernst-Planck equations for ion concentrations, the Poisson equation for the electric field and the Navier-Stokes equations for the fluid flow, and a stochastic growth rule for ion deposition. A new set of dimensionless numbers governing electroconvection dominated flows is introduced. Preliminary experimental measurements and numerical results indicate that in the electroconvection dominated regime coulombic forces increase with the applied voltage, and their influence over growth pattern formation can be assessed with the magnitude of the dimensionless electric Froude number. It is suggested that when this number decreases the deposit morphology changes from fractal to dense branching.