Phase Formation in Electrodeposited Cu-Zn Alloy Films Produced from Ultrasonicated Solutions

Thin film brass alloys were galvanostatically electrodeposited from non-cyanide citrate solutions. Aqueous sulphate solutions were used as deposition medium. It was aimed to understand the effect of ultrasonication of the solutions before electrodeposition process. Ultrasonication was not applied during deposition. This method was utilized to change solution characteristics, by applying high energy via cavitation mechanism, which would result in changes in resultant film properties. X-ray diffraction technique was used to investigate phase formation in samples. Moreover X-ray diffractograms were also used to calculate grain size values. Cu and Zn elements were codeposited successfully to form brass alloys. When phase formations in the samples were compared to each other, it was concluded that although there are small differences between X-ray diffractograms of samples, ultrasonic treatment before electrodeposition is not an effective way to alter phase characteristics of CuZn alloy samples, since all samples have shown similar X-ray diffraction graphs. Grain size is found to get smaller with presence of ultrasonication, extending ultrasonication time caused only small random changes in grain size.