Variable property electrodepositing of metallic structures

A method of preparing a variable property metallic deposit, comprising the steps:

• electrodepositing a metallic material from an aqueous electrolyte in a single electrolytic cell having at least one anode and at least one cathode using DC and/or pulse electrodeposition;
• varying at least one deposit property in a deposit direction by more than 10% by modulating at least one electrodeposition parameter selected from the group consisting of average current density ranging from 5 to 10,000 mA/cm2, forward pulse on time ranging from 0.1 to 500 ms, reverse pulse on time ranging from 0 to 500 ms, peak forward current density ranging from 5 to 10,000 mA/cm2, frequency ranging from 0 to 1,000 Hz;
• a duty cycle ranging from 5 to 100%, bath temperature ranging from 0 to 100° C., working electrode rotation speed ranging from 0 to 1,000 rpm, bath pH ranging from 0 to 12, bath flow direction at cathode ranging from incident (perpendicular) to tangential, shielding anode by covering between 0-95% of the geometrical anode surface area;
• and
• varying the at least one deposit property by more than 10% along a length, width, or combinations thereof of the deposit by modulating at least one electrodeposition parameter selected from the group consisting of flow direction at cathode ranging from perpendicular to tangential, shielding anode by covering between 0 and 95% of the geometrical anode surface area, flow rate ranging from 0-10 gpm, reverse pulse peak current density ranging from 5 to 20,000 mA/cm2, and total average current density ranging from 5-20,000 mA/cm2,
• wherein the at least one deposit property is selected from the group consisting of grain size yield strength, resilience, chemical composition, coefficient of thermal expansion, and magnetic coercive force;
• and
• wherein said metallic deposit has a deposit thickness ranging from 20 microns to 5cm having a fine-grained microstructure with an average grain size ranging from 2 nm to 5,000 nm throughout 1.5 nm to 5 cm of said thickness.

A method for preparing a pure iron multi-layer deposit having a variable grain size comprising the steps of:

• electrodepositing iron from an aqueous electrolyte in a single electrolytic cell;
• modulating the average current density from about 80 to about 200 mA/cm2, the frequency ranging from about 0 to about 100 Hz, and the duty cycle ranging from about 70to about 100%;
• varying the grain size of directly adjacent layers by more than 10%;
• and
• wherein said pure iron multi-layer deposit has a fine-grained microstructure wherein the individual pure iron layers of the pure iron multi-layer deposit have an average grain size ranging from about 30 to about 5,000 nanometers throughout said deposit thickness, and wherein each individual pure iron layer of the multi-layer pure iron deposit has an internal stress ranging from about 3 to about 30 ksi and said pure multi-layer deposit has a chemical composition that does not change throughout the deposit thickness.

A method for preparing a multi-layer nickel deposit having variable grain size comprising the steps:

• electrodepositing pure nickel from an aqueous electrolyte in a single electrolytic cell;
• modulating the average current density from about 50 to about 80 mA/cm2, the frequency ranging from about 10 to about 125 Hz, the duty cycle ranging from about 25 to about 90%;
• varying the grain size of a deposit direction by more than 10%;
• and
• wherein said multi-layer pure nickel deposit has a fine-grained microstructure wherein the individual layers of the multi-layer deposit have an average grain size ranging from about 30 to about 275 nanometers and wherein said multi-layer nickel deposit has a chemical composition that does not change throughout the deposit thickness.