A new programmable dipping robot

Tedious handling of substrates for dip-coating in layer-by-layer procedures is greatly simplified by a robot at the price of a simple three-dimensional printer as demonstrated by the preparation of a nickel hexacyanoferrate layer, whose morphological and electrochemical properties were characterized.

Abstract

A new dipping robot is presented for the execution of layer-by-layer (LbL) deposition procedures for the modification of electrode surfaces. It is composed of low-budget parts broadly available three-dimensional (3D) printer. New extra hardware components produced by 3D printing and the open-source software can turn such a device into a flexible dipping robot. The required changes in code as well as the printing instructions for the changed hardware components are documented and are made freely available together with tools that allow customizing LbL coating processes. The potential of this very flexible instrumentation is exemplified by a redox-active film of nickel hexacyanoferrate on a gold electrode modified by a monolayer of 3′-mercaptobiphenyl-carbonitrile. Scanning electron microscopy confirm the absence of micometer-sized cracks. It shows the typical voltammetric behavior of that material.

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