Faradaic efficiency of porous electrodeposits: an application to β-Ni(OH) 2 films

Electrodeposition is a common technique for coating metallic or semiconducting substrates. The growth of the layers occurs through faradaic processes in which charges are transferred across the substrate-electrolyte interface. Since more than one reaction can occur simultaneously, it is important to study the faradaic efficiency ( ε ) associated to the growth of the desired layers and relate it to other parameters in order to optimize the process. In this work, an indirect method to determine the faradaic efficiency of electrodeposits with porosity ( p ) is proposed. The method was satisfactorily applied to porous β-Ni(OH) 2 films obtained by light-assisted anodic electrodeposition. These films were grown using different electrolyte concentrations ( C ) and temperatures ( T ). In this case, a direct dependence of p and ε with C and T was found. Graphical abstract ᅟ