Electrochemical Analysis of the Slurry Composition for Chemical Mechanical Polishing of Flexible Stainless-Steel Substrates

Abstract

The surface quality of the stainless steel affects the efficiency of flexible photovoltaics. Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is a finishing process that is used to prepare substrates for electronic devices. The CMP slurry composition is an important factor because additives in the slurry generally improve the polishing performance. However, it is limited to find the optimum conditions for the slurry by only experimental approaches. Thus, this study uses electrochemical analysis and friction monitoring to examine the effects of the abrasive, oxidizer, chelating agent, and pH. Electrochemical and monitoring analysis are useful for validating predictions and understanding interactions between the slurry and the stainless steel surface. Good correspondence was found between the predictions and the polishing results in more accurate. The corrosion rate (CR) obtained from the potentiodynamic polarization curve is proportional to the experimental results, as is the behavior of the curve and the coefficient of friction (COF). After only 3 min CMP, the best performing slurry (abrasive 39 wt %, oxalic acid 1 wt %, H₂O₂ 0.03 wt %, pH 1.5) improved the surface quality of 304 stainless steel by 4 nm. As a result, the proposed methods could help reduce the risks involved in stainless steel CMP slurry and these results could provide a reference for optimizing CMP slurry for flexible 304 stainless steel substrates.