Textural evolution in electrodeposits under the influence of adsorbed foreign species. Part II a simulation study on effects of potassium chloride on textural evolution in copper electrodeposits

The texture of copper deposits produced in the bath containing potassium chloride changes with the content of the potassium chloride. This change in texture was usually explained to be caused by chloride adsorption on the cathode. This paper reports simulation studies on textural evolution in copper electrodeposits under the influence of potassium chloride, using a Monte Carlo simulation approach. The study was conducted based on the assumption that the textural development results from the minimization of the system free energy in which the surface-energy anisotropy plays the most important role. The simulation demonstrates that adsorbed potassium ions may change the surface-energy anisotropy of copper, and therefore, they also affect texture variation in copper deposits in addition to the chloride effect. It was observed the potassium effect on textural variation in copper deposits is even stronger than that of the Cl^- adsorption.