A computational laboratory on the role of mass transport contributions in electrochemical systems: Copper deposition

This paper presents a computational laboratory that describes the ionic transport of chemical species in an electrochemical process. The system is modeled in 1D using a kinetic model type Butler–Volmer coupled with mass balance equations, i.e. Nernst–Planck formalism. This laboratory is intended to be a practical learning tool to study the deposition of chemical species, e.g. Cu²⁺, subject to the typical mass transfer mechanisms, i.e. diffusion, migration and convection. Sensitivity analyses are used to analyze the effect of each mass transport phenomena over the process reaction rate. The material showed in this paper is a section (laboratory) of two third-year courses in the Nanotechnology and Chemical Engineering undergraduate programs at the University of Waterloo. The pedagogical goals, learning experiences and students’ comments of this laboratory are presented in this work.