Preparation of gold, silver and copper nanostructured surfaces by application of a square wave potential regime

Resumen

This paper presents a novel simple approach for preparation of gold, silver and copper nanostructured electrodes on a tantalum substrate by application of a square wave potential regime. The potential regime comprises a square wave whose lower potential limit lies within the potential zone of spontaneous electrodeposition.
The identity of the formed structures was verified by EDX and voltammetry, while the size, shape and uniformity of distribution of the particles were traced by scanning electron microscopy. The resulting structures were found to depend on the square wave parameters (frequency, amplitude and position of the center of the square wave). The optimized conditions for production of nanostructured electrodes were a 100 Hz frequency, about a 60 s period of application of the square wave, and 10-3 M concentration of the metal ions. In contrast, longer deposition times and higher ion concentrations were found to lead to formation of 3-dimentional microstructures.