Characterization of ultrafine copper powder prepared by novel electrodeposition method

Abstract

The auto-evolved ultrafine copper powders were synthesized via a novel electrodeposition route performed by ultrasonic dispersion of the electrolyte. The properties of the samples obtained were characterized by X-ray powder diffractometry (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and laser size distribution analyzer (SL) respectively. The formation mechanisms of the powders and the efficiency of the elctrodeposition were discussed. The results show that the as-prepared powders are high-purity copper nanoparticles with the fcc structure taking a mixture of fishbone-like and irregular shapes. When the concentration of Cu²⁺ increases from 0.03 to 0.09 mol/L, the average size of copper particles increases from 0.92 to 1.80 µm, and current efficiency of electrodeposition linearly changes from 66.5% to 91.3%.

Keywords

copper powder / electrodepositon / ultrasound

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