Highly customisable scanning droplet cell microscopes using 3D-printing

• Optimum geometry of flow cells was derived from CFD simulations.
• 3D printing replaces classical manufacturing techniques.
• Perfect coupling of electrochemical and downstream analytics possible.
• Uniform and reproducible electrode area probing achieved.
• High aspect ratio thin film analytics is demonstrated on Cu and Zn as examples.

3D printing was applied for the first time to produce highly customised flow type scanning droplet cell microscope heads which combine electrochemical measurements with downstream analytics of the electrolyte. The main advantages are the optimised fluid dynamics, the homogeneous and laminar mass transport along with the simplicity of the production at low costs. An improved design is presented that is hard to be machined in a classical way. This flow-type scanning droplet cell microscope (FT-SDCM) combines features from older versions of the techniques, the classical theta capillary based version and V-shaped microscopes. Different versions are compared and fluid dynamic simulations were performed to reveal their particularities in terms of electrolyte flow and surface wetting. Fabricating of the complex design of the flow cell was realised using a rapid prototyping approach. The newly proposed prototype is tested under various experimental conditions for assessing its stability, wetting and sealing performances. Both chemical and electrochemical dissolution experiments have shown a perfect electrolyte confinement within the cell and a complete wetting of the addressed area together with high throughput experimentation capabilities due to the robust design and ease of use in combination with a gantry robot.

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