A Feasibility Study of Localized Electrochemical Deposition Using Liquid Marbles

Abstract

A liquid marble is a droplet of liquid coated with micro or nano-particles. A novel method of localized electrochemical deposition (LECD) using liquid marbles and the feasibility of application of this method in additive manufacturing/micro-repair is studied.Controllability of the transportation of liquid marbles to any desired location by pick and place technique has been demonstrated by depositing a 3 X 3 grid pattern with 1 mm period using an in-house built CNC set up. Electro deposition experiments performed at defective spots with liquid marbles confirm the feasibility of micro-repair using this novel technique.

Liquid Marbles under Electric Fields: New Capabilities for Non-wetting Droplet Manipulation and Beyond

“…Electrochemical microrepair can also be achieved by performing LM-based localized electrochemical deposition when the liquid is a nickel electrolyte. 118 By encapsulating the electrolyte with hydrophobic copper powder, the prepared LMs can be picked up by inserting a tool electrode and placed at the desired location. A nanosecond pulse current was applied to cause electrodeposition, leaving the copper powder glued to the substrate and the nickel from the electrolyte, thus enabling target localized material addition.…”

“…Electrochemical microrepair can also be achieved by performing LM-based localized electrochemical deposition when the liquid is a nickel electrolyte . By encapsulating the electrolyte with hydrophobic copper powder, the prepared LMs can be picked up by inserting a tool electrode and placed at the desired location.…”

Corrosion Study on Liquid Marble Based Localized Electrochemical Deposition on Cold Rolled Steel

“…This involves inserting a micro tool (electrode) inside the marble and due to the adhesion preference to the tool, the liquid marble sticks to the tool and then it can be manipulated in all spatial dimensions. When an electrolyte is encapsulated in a liquid marble it can be used for localized electrochemical deposition (LECD) to perform micro repair as demonstrated in our previous work [6]. Micro holes were successfully repaired using this process.…”

“…Micro-Plasma-Transferred Arc (µPTA) wire deposition, a newer micro-repair process also suffers from thermal effects [5]. To overcome such shortcomings, a novel electro deposition method using liquid marbles is being developed for micro repair [6]. Liquid marbles are liquid droplets coated with hydrophobic powder [7].…”