Atomic force microscopy and scaling analysis applied to the characterization of zinc electrodeposits

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This project aims to characterize and quantify the roughness of zinc electrodeposits produced at Teck Resources Limited (operations in Trail BC, Canada). In the typical industrial method of producing high-purity zinc, electrowinning is used to recover the metal at an aluminum cathode under large current densities and high-deposition rates. With these conditions, electrowinning is economical but the zinc deposits are often non-uniform and may cause cell short-circuits if the growing zinc layer makes contact with another electrode in the cell. To avoid this, a variety of organic leveling agents may be added to the zinc feed to produce smoother deposits. However, short-circuits are still a problem faced in many electrwinning operations and a better understanding of how the additives interact with the metal surface is required.