Controlled Orientation of Asymmetric Copper Deposits on Carbon Microobjects by Bipolar Electrochemistry

Asymmetric particles of various chemical compositions have attracted great attention because of their application potential in different areas, ranging from photo-splitting of water to autonomous swimmers. In this context, the spatial arrangement of the different components can be of major importance. We report here a bulk procedure based on bipolar electrochemistry that allows generating asymmetric particles with a highly controlled spatial orientation of a metal deposit on a carbon substrate. Two fundamentally different topologies of the metal deposit can be obtained as a function of controllable experimental parameters like the orientation and amplitude of the electric field as well as the viscosity of the medium.