Chronopotentiometry driven electrodeposition of Cu- Ni-W thin films on ITO substrate: A comprehensive study of microstructure and corrosion behaviour

Abstract

Cu-Ni-W thin films are deposited by varying the current density from − 5 to -60 mA/cm² using the galvanostatic chronopotentiogram method on ITO-coated glass substrates. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that Cu-Ni-W thin films exhibit a face-centered cubic structure with the presence of specific crystallographic planes, particularly (111), (200), and (220), at 2θ values of 43.4°, 50.7°, and 74.7°. The additional peaks observed at other 2θ values correspond to NiW and Ni4W phases. It is found that film deposited at higher current densities favor the growth of smaller crystalline size of 17 nm and higher degree of texture coefficient of 2.48. The maximum value of micro-strain of about 16% is calculated from the peak broadening of X-ray diffractograms. Due to the strong (111) texture and nano crystallites as confirmed by XRD resulted in an outstanding corrosion resistance of 16.22 kΩ cm² for the film deposited at -60 mA/cm².