Integrated Microdroplets Array for Intelligent Electrochemical Fabrication

The efficiency and accuracy of material fabrication are closely related to the quantity and quality of material structures/properties, which usually involves multiple parameters with high cost and time waste. Here, an intelligent and high-throughput platform is developed to regulate multiple electrodeposition parameters of a microdroplets array for controlling and predicting nanostructures. On such platform, the minipillars can anchor the microdroplets as individual deposition reactors, and the electrodes are integrated on one side to achieve high-throughput and simultaneous electrochemical fabrication. Such integrated and intelligent platform has been employed to investigate gold nanostructures via regulating the deposition parameters (time, potential, HAuCl4 concentration, Cl-/SO42- concentration in electrolyte, temperature, and humidity), and to establish the database of electrochemically-fabricated gold nanostructures for guiding the design and fabrication of specific gold nanostructures. It is believed that such platform can act as a pioneer to promote the development of materials science by coupling intelligence technology with nanomaterial fabrication.