A study of the Morphology and Optical Properties of Electropolished Aluminum in the Vis-IR region

作者：Adelkhani H^*; Nasoodi S; Jafari A H

来源：International Journal of Electrochemical Science, 2009, 4(2): 238-246.

• Electropolishing
• Aluminum
• Metal mirror
• Reflection
• Roughness

In this paper, the commercial pure aluminum specimens (Al 99.3 %) are electropolished in an acidic electrolyte. The morphology, reflection, and roughness of the specimens are investigated. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray Fluorescence (XRF), Vis-IR Spectroscopy, and Dek-Tak method are used to characterize of specimens. The results show that by increasing current density from 5 A/dm(2) to 25 A/dm(2) the roughness and reflectance of Al specimens decrease/increase respectively. The opposite trend is seen when the current density increases more than 25 A/dm(2). The roughness of Al specimen before electropolishing is 3.45 mm and it will decrease to 0.45 square m by electropolishing at optimum conditions. A similar trend is also seen in reflection; it increases from 10% to 93% for the optimized electropolishing specimen. The SEM study confirms that the electropolishing could decrease the surface roughness, and it can form a smooth surface in micro/nano meter scale. According to the results, the metal mirror that is prepared by Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) method has higher reflectance in comparison with the optimized electropolishing specimen. It shows that the purity of Al also has an essential effect on the reflection spectra.

• 出版日期2009-2