Electrochemical studies on the mechanism of the fabrication of ceramic films by hydrothermal-electrochemical technique

In this paper, electrochemical techniques are used to investigate hydrother mal-electrochemically formation of barium titanate (BT) ceramic films. For comparison, the electrochemical behaviors of anodic: titanium oxide films f ormed in alkaline solution were also investigated both at room temperature and in hydrothermal condition at 150 degrees C. Film structure and morpholo gy were identified by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force m icroscopy (AFM). Titanium oxide films produced at different potentials exhi bit different film morphology. The breakdown of titanium oxide films anodic growth on Ti electrode plays an important roles in the formation of BT fil ms. BT films can grow on anodic oxide/metal substrate interface by short-ci rcuit path, and the dissolution-precipitation processes on the ceramic film /solution interface control the film structure and morphology. Based upon t he current experimental results and our previous work, extensively schemati c procedures are proposed to model the mechanism of ceramic film formation by hydrothermal-electrochemical method.