Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Shafreeza Sobri, Professor Sudipta Roy
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
A solution containing thiosulphate and sulphite has been developed specially for microelectronics applications to replace the conventional cyanide-based bath for long-term sustainability of gold electroplating. However, at the end of the electrodeposition process, the spent electrolyte can contain a significant amount of gold in solution. Investigations have been done to study the feasibility of gold recovery from the spent thiosulphate-sulphite electrolyte. In a previous work, flat plate glassy carbon was used to study the initial nucleation mechanism of gold deposition. However, in that study the growth of nuclei or their eventual formation into a gold film was not examined. Here, we present the microscopy observations of crystal growth of gold on glassy carbon at longer deposition times as a function of deposition potentials. It was found that the initial deposition of gold at low-cathodic potential corresponds to an electrochemical diffusion controlled gold discharge from which spherical nuclei are obtained. After a certain time the initial growing nuclei become unstable and the thin gold deposit begins to develop tips, which eventually grow larger and produce dendrites. The dendritic growth is controlled by surface-diffusion limitations of gold. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Author(s): Sobri S, Roy S, Aranyi D, Nagy PM, Papp K, Kalman E
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Surface and Interface Analysis
Year: 2008
Volume: 40
Issue: 3-4
Pages: 834-843
Print publication date: 01/03/2008
ISSN (print): 0142-2421
ISSN (electronic): 1096-9918
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/sia.2799
DOI: 10.1002/sia.2799
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
