Three-dimensional nature of ion transport in thin-layer electrodeposition

G. MARSHALL; E. MOCSKOS; F. MOLINA; S. DENGRA

PHYSICAL REVIEW E - STATISTICAL PHYSICS, PLASMAS, FLUIDS AND RELATED INTERDISCIPLINARY TOPICS

American Physical Society through the American Institute of Physics

Lugar: New York; Año: 2003 vol. 68 p. 21607 - 21615

1063-651X

   A generalized three-dimensional model for ion transport in electrodeposition is introduced. Ion transport is mainly governed by diffusion, migration, and convection. When convection prevails, in particular, in the limiting case of gravity-driven convection, the model predicts concentration shells and convection rolls andtheir interaction mode with a deposit tip: shell and roll bend and surround the tip forming a three-dimensional envelope tube squeezed at the deposit tip. In the limiting case of electrically driven convection, a vortex ring and an electric spherical drop crowning the deposit tip are predicted. When gravity and electric convection areboth relevant, the interaction of ramified deposits, vortex tubes and rings, and electric spherical drops, leading to complex helicoidal flow, is predicted. Many of these predictions are experimentally observed, suggesting that ion transport underlying dendrite growth is remarkably well captured by our model.