Differences Observed in the Phase Structure, Grain Size–Shape, and Coercivity Field of Electrochemically Deposited Ni–Co Thin Films with Different Co Contents

Abstract

Nanostructured Ni-Co thin films were produced using galvanostatic electrodeposition on indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass substrates from an aqueous electrolyte solution without stirring at ambient temperature. Different compositions of the films were achieved depending on the Co ion concentration within the electrolyte. From the compositional analysis performed using energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, the anomalous codeposition was found for all films and an increase in the Co content of the films was observed with increasing Co ion concentration within the electrolyte. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses revealed that the phase structure of the electrodeposited Ni-Co thin films changes from single face-centered cubic (FCC) to a mixture of FCC and hexagonal closepacked (HCP) with the Co content within the films. It was also observed that the mean crystallite size estimated by applying the Scherrer method gradually decreases as the Co content within the films increases. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) employed for the surface morphology showed that the size and shape of the grains formed on the film surface are strongly dependent on Co content within the films. Magnetic measurements performed by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) revealed that the films with different Co contents exhibit different magnetic properties;

Electrochemical Deposition of Fe–Co–Ni Samples with Different Co Contents and Characterization of Their Microstructural and Magnetic Properties

“…Coatings 2022, 11, x FOR PEER REVIEW 7 of 13 phase structure (fcc) to dual phase structure (fcc + hcp or fcc + bcc) was also reported in electrochemically grown binary Ni-Co films, Co-Ni-Al2O3 composite coatings, and ternary ferromagnetic films of Fe, Co, and Ni [12,13,17,47,56]. Alongside the phase transition, an increment in the Co contents resulted in a significant decrement in the intensities of both ( 111) and (200) diffraction peaks, reflecting a strong reduction in the crystallization (Figure 4).…”

“…The resulting XRD patterns are shown in Figure 4. [12,13,17,47,56]. Alongside the phase transition, an increment in the Co contents resulted in a significant decrement in the intensities of both (111) and (200) diffraction peaks, reflecting a strong reduction in the crystallization (Figure 4).…”

“…It is well known that ternary ferromagnetic alloy films are interesting soft magnetic materials due to their high saturation magnetization and low coercive field [4,6]. The conducted studies showed that the Fe, Ni, and Co components in binary Ni-Co, Ni-Fe and Fe-Cu and ternary Ni-Co-Cu, Ni-Fe-Cu, Co-Fe-Cu and Fe-Co-Ni magnetic materials grew by the electrochemical deposition technique on Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) covered glass substrates which can be tuned by controlling the Fe, Ni and Co ion concentrations in the Plating Solutions (PSs), respectively [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. However, the relative compositions of Co and Fe components in the samples were found be higher than those in the PSs for different electroplating parameters [6,13,14,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24], which is in good agreement with the definition defined by Brenner [25].…”

Changes of Mineralogical Properties and Biological Activities of Gypsum and Its Calcined Products with Different Phase Structures

“…e experimental results showed that CG350, the main phase structure of anhydrite III, exhibited more advantages in texture, pore size, specific surface area, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and scald repairing. FTIR and XRD are the most common and reliable methods to determine the phase structure [48,49]. In the process of calcining gypsum, FTIR and XRD are suggested to identify the phase structure of CG, which is of great significance for the quality control of CG.…”

The influence of deposit composition controlled by changing the relative Fe ion concentration on properties of electroplated nanocrystalline Co-Fe-Cu ternary thin films

“…The less noble metal is deposited preferentially compared to the more noble metal for a wide range of electroplating conditions in the electrochemical deposition of the films with iron-group metals, reflecting the formation of anomalous codeposition [11]. Furthermore, chemical composition of the electrochemically deposited magnetic metallic thin films is also well known to be affected directly by the relative concentration of metals used in the electrolyte solution [8,[12][13][14][15].…”