Electrochemical study about zinc electrodeposition onto GCE and HOPG substrates

• Main Authors: Madai Granados-Ner, Luis Humberto Mendoza Huizar, Clara Hilda Rios-Reyes
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Química 2011-01-01
• Series: Química Nova
• Subjects: zinc; electrodeposition; carbon
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-40422011000300014&lng=en&tlng=en

We carried out an electrochemical study about zinc electrodeposition onto GCE and HOPG substrates from an electrolytic plating bath containing 0.01M ZnSO4 + 1M (NH4)2SO4 at pH 7. Under our experimental conditions the predominant chemical species was the complex [ZnSO4(H2O)5]. The chronoamperometric study showed that zinc electrodeposition follows a typical 3D nucleation mechanism in both substrates. The average dG calculated for the stable nucleus formation was 6.92 x 10-21 J nuclei"1 and 1.35 x 10-20 J nuclei"1 for GCE and HOPG, respectively. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed different nucleation and growth processes on GCE and HOPG substrates at same overpotential.