Electroplating, either by a spontaneous reduction process or as a result of applied current through an aqueous salt bath, has cemented itself as a reliable means of enhancing the physical/chemical properties of surfaces. Use of an electrolyte bath, however, provides a set of physical limitations against large plating surfaces, and inevitably will lead to excess aqueous waste. As such, a method for electroplating has been designed that circumvents the need for a bath by implementing the use of a viscous, semi-dry cathode salt electro-deposit, which allows for greater selection of possible plating surfaces and could decrease the cost of plating processes. Previous studies in our group have found that electro-deposits containing Ni, Cu, Zn, and Sn were plated onto Ni substrates and characterized. This study aims to continue upon these findings by investigating the plating of alloys, specifically brass (33 mol% Zn) and bronze (12 mol% Sn). Electro-deposits with these compositions were prepared on a 9 cm<sup>2</sup> nickel foil cathode using a copper anode of identical area under applied currents of 0.005, 0.01, and 0.02 A cm<sup>–1</sup>. The resultant films were characterized with X-ray fluorescence to determine elemental composition, as well as optical and atomic force microscopy to determine microscale and nanoscale surface morphology. X-ray diffraction was utilized in order to determine crystallinity and phase comparisons with respect to commercial-grade brass and bronze anodes. Electrochemical behaviors were examined during plating using potentiometry.

Bathless dry-cell electrostamping and characterization of brass and bronze

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