Method for manufacturing a miniaturized electrochemical cell and a miniaturized electrochemical cell

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018205070-A1
Application number	US-201615741845-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 29, 2016
Priority date	Jul 20, 2015
Publication date	Jul 19, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

A miniaturized electrochemical cell and a method for making it are provided. The method includes preparing at least one inner electrode of an electron conducting or semi-conducting material M 1 ; providing a hollow support made of an electrically insulating material M 6 and having at least one internal hollow channel; depositing on the external surface of the support a layer of an electrically conducting material M 2 ; forming a template of colloidal particles of an electrically insulating material M 3 , on the M 2 layer; depositing a layer of an electrically conducting material M 4 on the M 2 layer; depositing a layer L 1 of an electron conducting or semi-conducting material M 5 on the M 4 layer, introducing the at least one inner electrode into the at least one internal hollow channel of the obtained structure; stabilizing the structure at its two open ends with an electrically insulating material M 7 ; and removing M 2 , M 3 , M 4 and M 6 materials.

First claim

1 : A method for manufacturing a miniaturized electrode cell of coaxial electrodes comprising at least one inner electrode and an outer electrode, the method comprising:
a) preparing the at least one inner electrode made of an electron conducting or semi-conducting material M 1 , b) providing a hollow support made of an electrically insulating material M 6 , the support having at least one internal hollow channel, the dimensions of the at least one internal hollow channel being higher than external dimensions of the inner electrode, and thickness of walls of the support being at least equal to width of a gap which is desired between the coaxial electrodes, c) depositing on an external surface of the support a layer of an electrically conducting material M 2 by an electroless deposition method, d) forming a template of colloidal particles made of an electrically insulating material M 3 on the layer of e electrically conducting material M 2 , e) depositing a layer of an electrically conducting material M 4 on the layer of the electrically conducting material M 2 through the template by an electro-deposition method, f) depositing a layer L 1 of an electron conducting or semi-conducting material M 5 on the layer of the electrically conducting material M 4 by an electro-deposition method, through the template to obtain a first structure, the layer L 1 having a thickness equal to a thickness of the outer electrode to be obtained, g) introducing the at least one inner electrode into the at least one internal hollow channel of the first structure obtained in f) to obtain a second structure, h) stabilizing the second structure obtained in g) at its two open ends with an electrically insulating material M 7 which is not soluble in a solvent in which the materials M 2 , M 3 , M 4 , and M 6 are soluble, i) removing the materials M 2 , M 3 , M 4 and M 6 , and optionally repeating b) to g) at least one time, the structure obtained after each g) constituting the at least one inner electrode to be introduced into the at least one internal hollow channel of each structure obtained in f).

2 : The method according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one inner electrode is made of a macroporous electron conducting or semi-conducting material M 1 and a) comprises:
a1) providing a substrate S 1 having a shape for the inner electrode and made of an electron conducting or semi-conducting material M 8 , a2) forming a template T 1 of colloidal particles made of an electrically insulating material M 9 , a3) depositing a layer L 1 , of an electron conducting or semi-conducting material M 1 on a surface of the substrate S 1 by an electro-deposition method, through the colloidal particles of the template T 1 , the substrate S 1 coated with the layer L 1 having the shape and the external dimensions for the inner electrode, and a4) removing the material M 9 with a solvent in which the material M 1 is not soluble.

3 : The method according to claim 1 , wherein the materials M 1 , M 5 and M 8 are independently selected from the group consisting of Pd, Ag, Cr, Au, Pt, Cu, Ni, Zn, polypyrrole (PPy), polyaniline (PAni), polyacetylene, and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene:sodium poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS).

4 : The method according to claim 2 , wherein the materials M 6 , M 3 and M 9 are independently selected from the group consisting of SiO 2 , a glass, and a plastic.

5 : The method according to claim 1 , wherein the materials M 2 and M 4 are independently selected from the group consisting of Ag, Ni, an Cr.

6 : The method according to claim 1 , wherein the material M 2 is Ag and the material M 4 is Ni.

7 : The method according to claim 1 , wherein a) is carried out after f).

8 : The method according to claim 1 , wherein h) stabilizes the two open ends of the second structure obtained in g) with an epoxy resin or a silicon based adhesive which is then hardened or reticulated.

9 : The method according to claim 2 , wherein the materials M 3 and M 9 are SiO 2 , the material M 6 is a glass, the material M 2 is Ag, and the material M 4 is Ni, and wherein i) comprises:
i1) dissolving the materials M 3 , M 6 and M 9 with a solution of hydrofluoric acid, and i2) dissolving the materials M 2 and M 4 with a solution of nitric acid or sulfuric acid.

10 : The method according to claim 2 , wherein the support and the substrate S 1 are cylinders.

11 : The method according to claim 2 , wherein the support and the substrate S 1 are parallelepipeds with a square or rectangular section.

12 : The method according to claim 1 , wherein the support is a single channel support.

13 : The method according to claim 1 , wherein the support is a multi-channel support.

14 : A miniaturized electrochemical cell, consisting of:
from 2 to 10 coaxial electrodes having a thickness of from 1 to 50 μm made of identical or different conducting or semi-conducting material M 1 and macroporous material M 5 , an inter-distance between each electrode being higher than 100 μm, and an addressing wire.

15 : the miniaturized electrochemical cell according to claim 14 , wherein the materials M 1 and M 5 are independently selected from the group consisting of Pd, Ag, Cr, Au, Pt, Cu, Ni, Zn, polypyrrole (PPy), polyaniline (PAni), polyacetylene, and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene:sodium poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS).

16 : The miniaturized electrochemical cell according to claim 14 , wherein the coaxial electrodes have a cylinder shape.

17 : The miniaturized electrochemical cell according to claim 14 , wherein the coaxial electrodes have a parallelepiped shape.

Assignees

• Centre Nat Rech Scient
• Univ Bordeaux
• Inst Polytechnique Bordeaux

Inventors

• Mano Nicolas
• Reculusa Stephane
• Ravaine Serge
• Karajic Aleksandar
• Kuhn Alexander

Classifications

• H01M4/1395

  of electrodes based on metals, Si or alloys · CPC title

• C25D3/46

  of silver · CPC title

• C25D7/0607

  Wires · CPC title

• A61B5/686

  Permanently implanted devices, e.g. pacemakers, other stimulators, biochips (A61B5/6861 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01M2004/025

  with shapes other than plane or cylindrical · CPC title