STUDY OF MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECTS ON COPPER

ELECTRODEPOSITION

Sudibyo , M.B. How, N. I. Basir and N. Aziz*

School of Chemical Engineering,, Universiti Sains Malaysia
14300 Nibong Tebal, Seberang Perai Selatan, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
*Corresponding author., Tel : +6(04)5996457 Fax : +6(04) 5941013 Email: chnaziz@eng.usm.my

Introduction
Electrodeposition is used to improve contact resistance, corrosion resistance, reflection properties of material and to impart friction properties.
Obtaining a uniform, dense and compact deposition is one of the major problem in electrodeposition.
One of methods available to overcome this problem is magnetoelectrodeposition (MED).

-MED application are : to synthesize metal alloy, thin film, multilayer, nanowires, multilayer nanowires, dot array and nanocontacts which are
the technology of the future to build the next generation of computing devices.
-The advantages of MED are : - Electrodeposits more uniform compact and denser
- Increase mass transport
- Increase Limiting Curret Density

Objectives of this research :

-To study the effect of magnetic strength, the voltage supplied and the alignment of the magnetic field towards growth fractal electrodeposits.

Experimental :
S ID E V IE W R O D E L E C T R O D E (C A T H O D E )

ELE C TR O LY TE
S ID E V IE W F IL T E R PA P E R
MULTIMETER RECTIFIER
S ID E V IE W EXTERNAL
S ID E V IE W M AGNET R IN G E L E C T R O D E (A N O D E )
B T O P V IE W C U S T O M IZ E D
B P E T R I D IS H
B

EXTERNAL EXTER NAL

A FLAT CIRCULAR CELL MAGNET
EXTERNAL M A G NET
E L E C T R O D E P O S IT IO N U N IT M AGNET
Figure 1: Schematic diagram for the MED (a) (b) (c)
system.
Figure 2 : Schematic diagram of the MED system with various degree of magnet Figure 3: Schematic diagram for
alignment : (a) magnet at 00, (b) magnet at 450 and (c) magnet at 900 (B is the direction the electrodeposition unit
of the magnet fluxSources of Magnetic Field : A Ferrite (18 gauss) and Neodymium
permanent magnets (31 gauss)

Result and Discussion

Effect of Magnetic Field Strength Effect of Electrical Potential

(a) (b) (c) (a) (b) (c)

Figure 4 : Copper electrodeposits (applied voltage 6 V, CuSO4 0.2 M, Figure 5 : Copper electrodeposits (neodium magnet, CuSO4 0.2 M, time duration 20
time duration 20 minutes) : (a) without magnet, ( b) in weak magnetic minutes): (a) applied voltage 4 V, (b) applied voltage 6 V, (c) applied voltage 8 V
field (ferrite magnet), (c) in strong magnetic field (neodium magnet)

Effect of Magnetic Field Placement

M as s de pos ite d vs . Voltage
0.05
Mass Deposited (gr)

0.04
(a)
(b) (c)
0.03

0.02
(e)
(d)
0.01

0
4 6 8
Figure 5 : Copper electrodeposits (applied voltage 6 V, time duration 20 minutes,
Voltage (V)
CuSO4 0.2 M, neodium magnet): the magnet placed (a) at 0o from vertical plane,
(b) at 45o from vertical plane, (c) at 90o from vertical plane, (d) at 135o from
vertical plane, (e) at 180o from vertical plane. Figure 6: Mass copper electrodeposits in variation an applied voltage

CONCLUSIONS

- Under the influence of magnetic field, the fractal electrodeposits are observed to be much denser and more compact due to the presence of
MHD effect.

- The MHD effect is actually generated by the magnetic force and as the magnetic field strength increases, the strength of the MHD effect
increases as well.

- Increasing applied voltage also lead the electrodeposits more denser and compact.

- The most compact and dense electrodeposits achieved when the magnet is placed at 0o from vertical plane as the magnetic force is parallel to
the cathode surface.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia
under FRGS grant No. 607113