AFM STUDY ON THE MORPHOLOGICAL CHANGE OF Zn ELECTRODEPOSIT

Nano-sized growth of zinc electrodeposit on the ferrite substrate has been studied by means of in situ scanning tunnel microscopy (STM) and atomic force micoscopy (AFM). It is found that the morphology of zinc electrodeposit varies from initial about 30nm granular crystals to layered platelet crystals with increasing deposition time by using in situ STM. With AFM, the results show that the platelet crystals ave hexagonal in shape and the hexagonal platelet crystals form steps perpendicular to the growth direction by side-by-side stacking along the (0001), surface. The mechanism of morphological change is discussed in details. It is proposed that these steps grow laterally as a result of the embedment of zinc ion clusters.