The Effect of DC Plating Parameters on the Composition and Morphology of Silver-copper Alloy

This research attempts to optimize the parameters for DC plating of silver on silver alloy of two different compositions namely 50 % and 75 % silver alloy. In the Silver –copper alloy, the surface morphology and composition of the electro deposit are influenced by current density, silver concentration in the bath, applied current type and addition of additive. It has been found that concentration of silver in silver alloy has an effect in weight Applied Physics Research May, 2009 3 electrodeposited over cathode in DC plating. The surface morphology is studied by taking SEM micrograph for the two different compositions of silver alloy and grain size is measured using XRD analysis. Higher the purity of silver, finer is the grain size. It has been observed that with the increase of silver in the sample, the amount of silver deposited, hence the thickness of the deposit varies for the same current and voltage settings