Effect of electrolysis parameters on the morphologies of copper powder obtained in a rotating cylinder electrode cell

In this paper, electrolysis method was used to produce copper powder particulates. The effects of parametric values, such as current density, concentration of copper ions, electrolyte temperature and rotation speed of cathode, on the morphologies and on the apparent densities of copper powders were examined. These parameters were evaluated by the current efficiency of hydrogen evolution. In addition, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used for analyzing the morphology of the copper powders. It was found that the increasing of the current density or the electrolyte temperature decreased the size of the powder particles promoting their morphology into dendritic structure. In contrast, the increase of copper ion concentration or rotation speed of cathode also increased the size of the particles resulting in a cauliflower-like morphology. All powder particles obtained were consisted of agglomerated copper grains. The most important difference was the size and the shape of the copper grains which were notably influenced by the electrolysis parameters. The apparent density values of copper powders were found to be suitable for many powder metallurgical applications. Attempts were also made in the later part of the paper to determine optimum process parameters for the production of electrolytic copper powders. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.