Chapter 6
Nanocrystalline Deposits
6.1 General Considerations Concerning Nanocrystalline
Deposits
6.1.1 Scope of This Chapter
In Chap. 6, the deposition characteristics and features of deposits occurring as continuous nanocrystalline (nc) coating on the surface of a substrate are summarized. The
common feature of the deposition methods comprised in this chapter is that the
thickness of the coating is much larger, sometimes by orders of magnitude, than
the grain size of the deposit. In this sense, these deposits can be regarded as bulk
nanocrystalline materials with nearly equiaxed crystals. The coatings to be discussed
are mostly metallic.
There is a variety of deposits in which the crystallite size is below one micrometre
at least in one direction, but the crystal structure is by far not equiaxed. When the
nanocrystalline nature of a deposit is rather a consequence of either the dendritic
or porous growth of the deposit, the physico-chemical parameters governing the
growth mode are much different from those acting during the growth of compact
layers. Therefore, these deposits are described together with other porous materials
in Chap. 8.
When the thickness of the deposit is small, the crystallite size tends to scale with
the thickness. In such cases, the nanocrystalline nature of the deposit is simply a
consequence of the small thickness. When nanocrystals are formed in a single layer
of well-segregated grains on a foreign substrate, their formation is influenced mostly
by the nucleation phenomenon, and the structural incoherence with the substrate
surface plays a key role in the granularity. These cases are discussed in Chap. 10
where all other sorts of the influence of the substrate inhomogeneity are also detailed.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
L. Péter, Electrochemical Methods of Nanostructure Preparation,
Monographs in Electrochemistry, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69117-2_6
183
Nanocrystalline Deposits
6.1 General Considerations Concerning Nanocrystalline
Deposits
6.1.1 Scope of This Chapter
In Chap. 6, the deposition characteristics and features of deposits occurring as continuous nanocrystalline (nc) coating on the surface of a substrate are summarized. The
common feature of the deposition methods comprised in this chapter is that the
thickness of the coating is much larger, sometimes by orders of magnitude, than
the grain size of the deposit. In this sense, these deposits can be regarded as bulk
nanocrystalline materials with nearly equiaxed crystals. The coatings to be discussed
are mostly metallic.
There is a variety of deposits in which the crystallite size is below one micrometre
at least in one direction, but the crystal structure is by far not equiaxed. When the
nanocrystalline nature of a deposit is rather a consequence of either the dendritic
or porous growth of the deposit, the physico-chemical parameters governing the
growth mode are much different from those acting during the growth of compact
layers. Therefore, these deposits are described together with other porous materials
in Chap. 8.
When the thickness of the deposit is small, the crystallite size tends to scale with
the thickness. In such cases, the nanocrystalline nature of the deposit is simply a
consequence of the small thickness. When nanocrystals are formed in a single layer
of well-segregated grains on a foreign substrate, their formation is influenced mostly
by the nucleation phenomenon, and the structural incoherence with the substrate
surface plays a key role in the granularity. These cases are discussed in Chap. 10
where all other sorts of the influence of the substrate inhomogeneity are also detailed.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
L. Péter, Electrochemical Methods of Nanostructure Preparation,
Monographs in Electrochemistry, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69117-2_6
183