Potential oscillation was observed during the template-free galvanostatic deposition in the 58/42 mol% AlCl 3 /trimethylamine hydrochloride ionic liquid, and resulted in the formation of unique periodic (accordion-like) aluminum wires with variable periodicity and diameter controlled by the deposition current density. Factors leading to this phenomenon are postulated. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by ECS. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 License (CC BY-NC-ND, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is not changed in any way and is properly cited. For permission for commercial reuse, please email: oa@electrochem.org. [DOI: 10.1149/2.0021507eel] All rights reserved.Manuscript submitted March 19, 2015; revised manuscript received April 27, 2015. Published May 5, 2015 Potential oscillation during galvanostatic electrodeposition and current oscillation during potentiostatic electrodeposition are of interesting because these phenomena often associated with the production of deposits having interesting spatial patterns in the microor nano-scale. Many examples acquired in aqueous systems have been reported including tine metal latticework consist of cuboids connected by needles, 1,2 stacked alternated layers of metals or alloys, [3][4][5] dendrites, 6,7 and metal wires with periodically changed diameters.
8-10Often, the oscillation is associated with negative differential resistance (NDR), 11 and has been attributed to the reactions such as formation of passivation layer, autocatalytic growth, adsorption of additives (levelers and accelerants), and restricted mass transport of ions.Ionic liquids (ILs) have attracted numerous interests in electrochemistry and electrodeposition 12,13 especially for the deposition of materials such as Al 14 that are difficult to obtain from aqueous baths. Materials with various morphologies, specifically, metals/alloys wires, [15][16][17][18][19][20][21] have been electrodeposited from ILs with and without the need of template. Nevertheless, reports on electrochemical oscillation in IL are very limited. 22,23 Schaltin et al. 23 discussed the current oscillation during potentiostatic electrolysis of EMIC IL containing both Cu(II)/Cu(I), and found the presence of both Cu(II) and Cu(I) is essential for the oscillation to occur. Here, we report the potential oscillation during the template-free galvanostatic deposition of Al from a quiescent 58/42 mol% AlCl 3 /trimethylamine hydrochloride (AlCl 3 /TMHC) IL, which leads to the formation of Al wires with diameters change periodically. According to the literature, 24 The complex ion chemistry in the AlCl 3 /TMHC is similar to that for the AlCl 3 /1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (AlCl 3 /EMIC) ILs, but the former ILs exhibit higher melting points and higher viscosities than the later ILs do. To our knowledge, galvanostatic de...