Investigation on Tin Electrodeposition from Sulphuric Acid Medium

The tin electrodeposition in an acidic sulphate solution is reported. Electrochemical techniques (chronoamperometry, cyclic and linear voltammetry) are used to find out some kinetic parameters that govern the tin electrodeposition process while scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is used to explore the morphology of the coating. The influence on the tin electrodeposition of certain experimental parameters such as tin ion concentration, potential scan rate and deposition current density are described. Sharifker-Hills and Palomar Pardave models are used to investigate the nucleation process of tin. It is found that the tin and proton reductions occur simultaneously. Dimensionless current-time transient related only to the tin reduction reaction fits well the theoretical transient for instantaneous mechanism nucleation. The diffusion coefficient has been determined by various electrochemical techniques and is found to be between 6.24x10(-6) and 7.4x10(-6) cm(2)s(-1). i(0) the exchange current density value is 0.0023 A/cm(2) and the charge transfer coefficient alpha(c) is approximately 0.5. It is also noted that the deposition current density affects the morphology of the deposited tin.