SPATIAL-DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTROCHEMICALLY DEPOSITED CLUSTERS - A SIMULATION STUDY

Monte Carlo simulations of electrochemical nucleation and growth have been carried out to demonstrate the specific features of spatial distr ibutions of clusters obtained at different number densities of active sites. Different types of spatial distributions were obtained dependin g upon the factor dominating the nucleation kinetics: direct exhaustio n of active sites or spreading of zones' of reduced overpotential. Sta tistical criteria such as non-dimensional standard deviation (sigma(j) /F-j) and skewness (skew(j)) were used to compare quantitatively the s imulated distributions of the distances between nearest and far distan t neighbours. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.