Experimental Study on the Porosity of Electrochemical Nickel Deposits

Porous metal parts offer unique advantages over traditional parts as they have excellent specific mechanical properties at a lesser weight. In this paper, the effect of the electrical parameters of deposition such as voltage and pulse duty cycle during pulsed electrodeposition on the current density and porosity of the manufactured parts was studied. Porosity at the micron scale, with a pore size between 1 - 10 μm was identified while using a 250 μm anode (tool). It is demonstrated that the porosity during these depositions occurs due to the kinetics of the electrochemical deposition, nucleation and crystal growth mechanisms. Through the study, it was found that the pulse duty cycle and voltage influence the porosity of the part. Higher duty cycle and higher voltage result in lower porosity in deposits, except in the case of 50% duty cycle when the double layer capacitance confines the deposit.