Investigation of nucleation and growth mechanism of bismuth electrodeposited on ITO substrate in nitric acid medium

Electrodeposition conditions-dependent crystal structure, morphology and electronic properties of Bi films

“…Bi electrodeposition from nitric and hydrochloric acids takes place under conditions of much lower irreversibility of the electrode process as compared with perchloric acid electrolytes. The bismuth films obtained in such conditions are large-grained and porous [30,36,37], and prolonged electrodeposition cannot contribute to obtaining smooth and uniform Bi films. It has been shown [38] that perchlorate electrolyte allows receiving of high-quality and dense samples.…”

“…A well-known nitrate electrolyte can allow the electrodeposition of uniform coatings in specific conditions, but the deposition is limited in speed down to 12 µm/h [30,39]. In this work, we used a recently developed [36,40] perchlorate electrolyte, which is more suitable for practical applications due to a higher growth speed (up to 200 µm/h) and comparable quality of deposits [34].…”