Recent Progress in Electrochemical Deposition without Supporting Electrolyte

Abstract

Electrochemical deposition (ECD) of metals is a very old subject[l], which has considerable applications in the context of electroshaping or electroplating. Electrochemists and chemical engineers have long known the different growth conditions of these metal aggregates and the different parameters which drive morphological changes, at least empirically [2-4]. However, in the recent years, after the introduction of the concept of fractal aggregation[5,6], in the field of non-linear pattern formation[7,8], a lot of work has been devoted to the specific problem of growth of electrodeposits from binary electrolytes [9-51] (i.e. without supporting electrolyte). These studies aimed at understanding the morphology, on the large scale (∼1cm) of the deposits and, more specifically, the transitions between morphologies. It is the aim of this paper to review the progress which has been achieved in the past five years on this question.