An analytical study on nucleation and growth mechanism of nanostructured Ni-Se coating by the chronoamperometry and pulse potential techniques

Abstract The current paper aimed to investigate the mechanism of Ni-Se electrodeposition and contribute a comprehensive understanding of Ni-Se deposition by pulse potential technique. Firstly, electrochemical mechanisms including the reactions and nucleation mechanism of Ni-Se on glassy carbon electrode were studied using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronoamperometry (CA) techniques, respectively. Moreover, to investigate the nucleation and growth mode influenced by different concentrations and applied deposition potential, experimental results were fitted into Bewick 2D nucleation and Scharifker-Hills 3D nucleation models. Current transient curves showed the electrodeposition of Ni-Se phase follows both the 2D nucleation and 3D progressive nucleation and diffusion-controlled growth. This work reports how the deposition of Ni-Se nuclei by pulse potential method on different substrates and the dependence of pulse parameters on the nucleation, growth, morphology, and stoichiometry of the nanostructured Ni-Se coating.