Numerical simulation of magnetic fields effects on fractal electrodeposits with an adapted diffusion limited aggregation model

T. R. Ni Mhiochain - J. M. D. Coey

Department of Physics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

Abstract
The morphology of metallic electrodeposits grown in a horizontal electrochemical cell is dramatically affected by the presence of an applied magnetic field. A diffusion limited aggregation model is developed which reproduces the experimentally observed chirality of these deposits. Mechanisms for modelling the applied voltage are compared, and reaction kinetics are simulated by a variable sticking probability. Resultant morphologies are characterized by their fractal dimension, determined using the box-counting method. Successive phases of the growth are monitored and the area of growth is seen to scale as the radius of the deposit, regardless of voltage or magnetic field. Figs 5, Refs 11.