Abstract: Using an electrochemical setup controlled by a microcomputer, the influence of DB, an additive for forming Zn deposits with low brittleness, on the electronu-cleation of zinc was investigated. The results showed that the nucleation follows the progressive mechanism. The relation of the nucleation rate constants Ato the electrode potentials Eprovided the evidence of the validity of the classical nucle-ation-rate law, and the emprical equation N_s=N_∞{1-exp[-b(E-E_cr)]}was obtained after fitting the saturated nuclear number densities N_swith E. At a constant potential, however, both N_sand Adecreased with increasing DBconcentrations. The effects of the additive and ovcrpotential were discussed in terms of heterogeneous nucleation theory.