Aqueous electrophoretic deposition in asymmetric AC electric fields (AC–EPD)

Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) is a cheap and simple processing technique based on the movement of charged particles in an electrical field (electrophoresis) followed by deposition of these particles on the electrode that attracted them [O. VanderBiest, L.J. Vandeperre, Electrophoretic deposition of materials, Annu. Rev. Mater. Sci. 29 (1999) 327–352]. If not for electrolysis, water would be the solvent of choice instead of the currently commercially used organics. In this work we prove that high voltages can be used for electrophoretic deposition from aqueous suspensions without decomposition of water when applying an asymmetric alternating electric field. The experimental results show that deposits formed using these fields have a green density and surface comparable and even better than those typically obtained using the classic EPD systems. As a result volatile, expensive and environmentally unfriendly solvents are no longer a necessity.