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Electrodeposition, also known as electroplating, refers to the process where a thin film of metal is deposited onto a conductive substrate under an applied current. The electrodeposition of alloys on a substrate requires the simultaneous deposition of two or more metals. Electrodeposition is both a costeffective and simple method to produce thin film materials (such as NiFe, CoNi, CoFe and NiCoFe). Nickel, cobalt and iron, ( iron-group metals), and their alloys are important engineering materials in many applications because of their unique magnetic, corrosion and wear-resistance, thermophysical and electrocatalytic properties. For example, NiFe and NiCoFe alloys are strong candidates for application in high density magnetic recording heads due to their high saturation flux density and low coercivity. These functional materials are usually prepared by electroplating because this technique is often much cheaper and simpler than other methods. In addition, advantages of electrodeposition include low deposition temperature and the simplicity of the required apparatus. The magnetic properties of these materials are seriously affected by their composition and structure thus, reliable control of these properties for the iron-group alloys is important for their wide applications. The standard equilibrium potentials of Ni, Co, and Fe are -0.25, -0.27, and -0.44 V vs. the normal hydrogen electrode (NHE), respectively. Therefore from a thermodynamic consideration Ni is the most noble of the three metals. On the basis of these values, in normal codeposition, nickel is expected to electroplate preferentially to cobalt and cobalt preferentially to iron. When these metals are plated individually, the kinetics of the electrodeposition of individual metals follows the trend expected from the standard equilibrium potential. However, when Fe is present in the same solution with either Ni, Co or both ions, there is often potential range where the rate of Fe deposition exceeds the rate of Ni and Co deposition occurs. The called anomalous codeposition of iron group metals is characterized by the less noble metal deposition preferentially to the nobler one. In other words, the reduction of nickel is inhibited while the deposition of iron and/or cobalt are enhanced when compared with their individual deposition rates. The study on the anomalous deposition of the irongroup alloys can be traced back to 1927. The mechanism of anomalous codeposition of iron group metals has been studied by many researchers and several hypotheses have been presented in the literature. … [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]