Effect of Coating Conditions on Ni-Cu-P thin films synthesized by an electrodeposition method

In this research, an electrodeposition method is introduced to study electrical conditions for coating Ni-Cu-P thin films on the ITO/glass substrates. From the experiment, a home-built chemical cell was set up to apply voltages from 1 V to 9 V and process currents for the Cu electrode as an anode and the substrate as a cathode with an electrode gap of 2.5 cm at a process temperature of 60^o C. The coating time varied from 1 min to 5 min. For the aqueous solution, a mixed electrolyte consists of 0.76M NiSO₄.6H₂O, 0.15M H₃PO₄ and 0.14M C₆H₈O₇ in DI water. The surface morphology and roughness were investigated by optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM). Moreover, the film conductivity, structure and wetting property were characterized using four-point probe, X-ray diffraction and water contact angle techniques, respectively. During synthesis, the film formation was investigated by the consumed current to the cell for each applied voltage. The films indicate an ohmic behavior with higher conductivities corresponding to the increase of the applied voltage. The wettability of metallic surfaces tends to be hydrophobic, as shown by a water contact angle.