Towards an electroless deposition of gold on metallic substrates using ionic li...

• Author(s): Sá, A. I. Correia de ; Eugénio, S. ; Quaresma, S. ; Rangel, C. M. ; Vilar, Rui
• Date: 2011
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.9/1425
• Origin: Repositório do LNEG
• Subject(s): Electroless deposition; Gold; Ionic liquids; Thin films
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

Recent research has suggested a number of applications for gold in fuel cells and related hydrogen fuel processing, which include coatings for light weight corrosion resistance bipolar plates and the incorporation of gold as catalyst to provide improvements in electrode conductivity, among others. This paper reports on the electroless deposition of gold on copper substrates from a HAuCl4.3H2O solution in 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium dicyanamide (BMP-DCA), in normal atmospheric conditions. The electrochemical behaviour of the plating solution was studied by potential sweep techniques. Results indicate that gold ions are deposited on copper without the aid of external polarization. The deposition process probably involves a displacement reaction involving copper dissolution, since no other oxidation reaction was identified. Preliminary studies using SEM/EDX showed that gold thin films, deposited on copper substrates at 333 K, present a granular nanostructured morphology, typical of electrodeposited films from DCA containing ionic liquids.