Nanostructured Fe–Pd thin films for thermoelastic shape memory alloys—electrochemical preparation and characterization

Nanostructured Fe–Pd thin films with about 30 at.% Pd have been successfully synthesized on the substrates of Pt buffer layer/Cr seed layer/Si by an electrodeposition process from a plating bath containing ammonium tartrate, citric acid and ammonia solution as complexing agents. Results clearly show that the as-deposited films with body-centered cubic structure were transformed into face-centered cubic structure by heating at 900 °C for 45 min followed by quenching into iced water. The in situ X-ray diffraction analysis results indicate that the quenched film with 29.8 at.% Pd undergoes a reversible thermoelastic austenite-to-martensite transformation with a narrow temperature hysteresis and a martensite transformation temperature of about −30 °C. The present study demonstrates the effectiveness of electrodeposition for synthesizing nanostructured Fe–Pd thin films for the application of low-temperature-type thermoelastic shape memory alloys.