Nucleation and growth mechanism of electrodeposited Ni−W alloy

The nucleation and growth mechanism of electrodeposited Ni−W alloy were investigated. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronoamperometry (CA) were used to examine the electrochemical behavior and nucleation mechanism of the electrodeposited Ni−W alloy. The nucleation type and kinetic parameters of the electrodeposited Ni−W alloy were obtained from the CA analysis results. SEM, AFM, and TEM were also used to investigate the nucleation and growth process of the electrodeposition of Ni−W alloy. The results demonstrate that the nucleation and initial stages of the growth phase of the Ni−W alloy undergo the formation, movement, and aggregation of atoms, single crystals, and nanoclusters. When the size of single crystal increases up to approximately 10 nm and the average size of the crystal granules is approximately 68 nm, they no longer grow. Increasing the applied potential increases the number of nuclei but does not affect the size of the final crystal granules. Therefore, the electrodeposited Ni−W alloy shows a nanocrystalline structure.