Electrodeposition of zinc-cobalt alloys from choline chloride-urea ionic liquid

The electrodeposition behavior of zinc-cobalt (Zn-Co) alloy was investigated in choline chloride/urea (1:2 molar ratio) deep eutectic solvent containing 0.11 M ZnCl2 and 0.01 M CoCl2. Cyclic voltammetry revealed that Co reduced preferably with respect to Zn and anomalous codeposition of Zn-Co did not occur in this solvent. Chronoamperometric investigations combined with field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) indicated that the electrodeposition of Zn-Co alloys followed the mechanism of instantaneous nucleation. Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GI-XRD) and SEM results showed that the deposition potential influenced the compositions, phase structure and surface morphology of the Zn-Co alloys.