Kinetics of Electrophoretic Deposition for Nanocrystalline Zinc Oxide Coatings

An integrated process combining the preparation of ZnO nanoparticles and the formation of ZnO coatings using electrophoretic deposition (EPD) is reported. The work focuses on the deposition kinetics of nanocrystalline ZnO coatings on copper electrodes during EPD by direct measurement of the thickness of the deposited layer. The experimental results show that the EPD process is a powerful route to fabricate uniform coatings with desired thickness and excellent surface smoothness, which might be attributed to small particle size and narrow size distribution. On the other hand, the deposition kinetics changes with applied voltage and deposition time. The deposition thickness increases with increasing applied voltage and deposition time. In a short deposition time, the deviation of deposition rate between the theoretical and experimental values is caused by voltage drops during deposition, and the discrepancy increases with the applied voltage. Moreover, the increasing voltage drop and depletion of the suspension lead to decreasing current and lower deposition rate after longer deposition time. The critical transition time of deposition kinetics is found to exponentially decrease with increasing applied voltage.