Determination of crystallite size and surface roughness of copper deposits for electrowinning in the presence of an organic additive

The crystallite size of copper electrodeposits was determined by X-Ray powder diffraction analysis using a General Area Detector Diffraction Solution (GADDS) diffractometer. Crystallite size was calculated for copper thin films which were deposited on a 316 stainless steel rotating cylinder electrode (RCE) in the presence and absence of additive "A". The crystallite size was calculated from a corrected full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the [110] peak profile using the Scherrer equation. The test of significant difference on crystallite size was derived using Kruskal-Wallis method. It was found that in the absence of the additive the median crystallite size was 426A, which decreased to 364A in the presence of the additive. As the additive degraded, the crystallite size increased to a size similar to that observed in the absence of additive.