Al Film Electrodeposition from the AlCl3-EMIC Electrolyte under a Magnetic Field

Abstract

The surface structure of Al films electrodeposited in a magnetic field was studied in a AlCl3-1ethyl-3methylimidazolium chloride (EMIC) mixture ionic liquid, focusing on the surface morphology and crystal orientation. Current-dependent measurements reveal two preferential orientations. First, at small current densities (i 10 mA cm(-2)), a (200) plane is selectively grown, where the mass transportation of Al(III) is promoted by magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) convection. Correlations of these data with scanning electron microscope observations showing tabular-facet formation in the magnetic field suggest that these structural variations are induced by microscopic MHD, demonstrating the difference between this process and that existing in an aqueous system. (C) The Author(s) 2017. Published by ECS. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse of the work in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. All rights reserved