Electrodeposition of metals from supercritical fluids

Jie Ke, Wenta Su, Steven M. Howdle, Michael W. George, David Cook, Magda Perdjon-Abel, Philip N. Bartlett, Wenjian Zhang, Fei Cheng, William Levason, Gillian Reid, Jason Hyde, James Wilson, David C. Smith, Kanad Mallik, Pier Sazio

Research output: Journal PublicationArticlepeer-review

68 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Electrodeposition is a widely used materials-deposition technology with a number of unique features, in particular, the efficient use of starting materials, conformal, and directed coating. The properties of the solvent medium for electrodeposition are critical to the technique's applicability. Supercritical fluids are unique solvents which give a wide range of advantages for chemistry in general, and materials processing in particular. However, a widely applicable approach to electrodeposition from supercritical fluids has not yet been developed. We present here a method that allows electrodeposition of a range of metals from supercritical carbon dioxide, using acetonitrile as a co-solvent and supercritical difluoromethane. This method is based on a careful selection of reagent and supporting electrolyte. There are no obvious barriers preventing this method being applied to deposit a range of materials from many different supercritical fluids. We present the deposition of 3-nm diameter nanowires in mesoporous silica templates using this methodology.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)14768-14772
Number of pages5
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume106
Issue number35
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2009
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Electrochemistry
  • Nanomaterials

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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