Fabrication of gradient polymer surfaces using bipolar electrochemistry

Abstract

This report focuses on recent developments using bipolar electrochemistry as an effective tool for the fabrication of gradient polymer surfaces. The electrochemical doping and reactions of conducting polymers under an applied potential distribution using bipolar electrodes have been carried out to prepare conducting polymers with composition gradients. Indirect electrolysis using an electrogenerated metal catalyst on bipolar electrodes successfully afforded gradually modified polymer surfaces and gradient polymer brushes using vinyl monomers. The newly designed cylinder bipolar electrode system is available for site-selective applications of electric potentials, which produced electrochemical patterning of conducting polymer films.

Synthesis of linear PEDOT fibers by AC-bipolar electropolymerization in a micro-space

“…9 In a low concentration of a supporting electrolyte, a conducting material such as a metal wire behaves as a BPE when a sufficient voltage is applied between the driving electrodes outside of the BPE. [10][11][12] The solution potential distribution generated in the electrolyte induces a potential difference at the interface of the solution and the metal wire, which is large enough to perform anodic and cathodic reactions on both sides of the wire (Figure 1b). Thus, the termini of a gold wire are platforms for the initial deposition of PEDOT.…”

Fabrication of a Lateral Gradient Rugate in Porous Silicon for a Miniature Spectrometer Application

“…However, in some cases a heterogeneous or patterned potential can be exploited to generate unique and specific structures. For example, bipolar electrochemistry, where the electrode has spatially different but controlled interfacial potentials at its surface, enables some interesting and useful structures or phenomena: large wireless electrochemical sensor arrays, concentration focusing, self‐propelling microparticles, and generation of compositional gradients are a few examples …”

“…They were also successful in localization of electrochemical reactions and doping . Electrochemical gradients have also been used to catalyze electro‐click reactions and interesting gradient polymers …”

“…For example, bipolar electrochemistry, where the electrode has spatially different but controlled interfacial potentials at its surface, enables some interesting and useful structures or phenomena: large wireless electrochemical sensor arrays, [1] concentration focusing, [2] selfpropelling microparticles, [3] and generation of compositional gradients are a few examples. [4] The Crooks group has rigorously studied much of the fundamental properties of these bipolar systems by means of theoretical considerations, computational simulations, and experiments. [5] They found that the key to bipolar electrochemistry is the ohmic potential drop across the electrolyte medium.…”

Multistage redox reactions of conductive-polymer nanostructures with lithium ions: potential for high-performance organic anodes

“…However, the design strategies for the molecules and hierarchical morphologies were not fully studied to achieve further improved properties in polymer-based anodes. Here, we focused on conductive polymers because molecular and morphological designs have been extensively studied in previous works [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] .…”