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Cover Picture: Electrochemical Machining of Gold Microstructures in LiCl/Dimethyl Sulfoxide (ChemPhysChem 3/2010)
Author(s) -
Ma Xinzhou,
Bán Andreas,
Schuster Rolf
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
chemphyschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.016
H-Index - 140
eISSN - 1439-7641
pISSN - 1439-4235
DOI - 10.1002/cphc.201090010
Subject(s) - electrolyte , materials science , aqueous solution , machining , electrode , electrochemistry , conductivity , supporting electrolyte , electrochemical machining , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , composite material , chemistry , metallurgy , organic chemistry , engineering
The application of short voltage pulses between a tool electrode and a workpiece electrode in electrolyte solution allows localization of electrochemical reactions to the vicinity of the tool with unprecedented precision. This can be used for three‐ dimensional microstructuring of electrochemically active materials. The cover picture shows SEM images of structures machined into a gold sheet with a sub‐micron sized carbon‐fiber tool. Upon application of a pulse train of 20 ns, 4 V pulses the carbon tip is fed into the Au sheet like the tool in a milling machine. The experimental setup is sketched on the right‐hand side of the cover. As discussed by R. Schuster et al. on p. 616, the machining precision is determined by the time constant of double layer charging and varies linearly with the pulse length (lower panel). Non‐aqueous electrolytes like LiCl in dimethyl sulfoxide are shown to be particularly useful for achieving high machining precision, because of their low specific electrolyte conductivity compared to typical aqueous electrolytes.