Abstract
The surface appearance of chromium electrodeposit was studied by employing a pulse curr-ent plating in self-regulating high speed (SRHS) bath containing 20 g/$\ell$, K2SiF6 7.5 g/$\ell$ SrSO4 and 250 g/$\ell$ CrO3. As the pulse frequency increased, the surface appearance changed suddenly from bright a-ppearance in a direct current plating condition to gray one in the range of pulse frequency less than about 20KHz. However the bright appearance is recovered as the pulse frequen-cy exceeded 20 KHz. This phenomena seemed to be related with the preferred orientation of electrodeposits, considering the relationship between the preferred orientation of elect-rodeposits and surface appearance in a SRHS bath. Direct current plating was also applied to both Sargent and SRHS bath and investigat-ion on surface appearance was extended to the high current density of 400 A/dm2. In a Sa-rgent bath, the increase in bath temperature was necessary for bright appearance as the current density was increased within 150 A/dm2, but bright region was shown in the cons-tant temperature of 70-75$^{\circ}C$ above the current density of 150A/dm2. On the other hand, two regions of surface brightness was found in a SRHS bath. One is region in the low temperature less than 25$^{\circ}C$ and the other in the moderate temperature range from 55$^{\circ}C$ to 65$^{\circ}C$.
