Electrochemical study about zinc electrodeposition onto GCE and HOPG substrates

Abstract

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 ΔG calculated for the stable nucleus formation was 6.92 × 10-21 J nuclei-1 and 1.35 × 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.