Electrodeposition of Chromium Film Using Cr3+ Solution: Fundamental Study of Crack Formation

What is the purpose of this study? Understand issues with electrodeposition (ELD) of chromium (Cr) film from Cr3+ solution and then suggest an approach to address them. What is ELD? In ELD process by applying current metallic ions in solution reduce and form a metallic coating on the surface of an electrode. Why Cr? Cr has attractive appearance -> decorative application. Cr is hard and anti-corrosion -> engineering application. General approaches for ELD of Cr? Cr(IV) ions -> + high quality films, - highly carcinogenic. Cr(III) ions -> + environmentally friendly, - issues with quality due to crack formation. What have we done so far? We fundamentally study the origin of cracks in the films. We propose a promising approach to reduce the cracking.