Sodium deoxycholate as a versatile dispersing and coating-forming agent: A new facet of electrophoretic deposition technology

The unique dispersion power of bile acid salts offers a tremendous potential for the development of new biomimetic strategies for colloidal processing of materials. This paper reports the feasibility of electrophoretic deposition (EPD) of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), diamond and carbon dots (CDs) using commercial sodium deoxycholate (DChNa) as a charged dispersant and coating-forming agent. The amphiphilic DChNa structure is beneficial for adsorption of this molecule on chemically inert hydrophobic surfaces and particle dispersion. The electrochemical film formation mechanism is based on the electrogenerated acid formation, protonation and charge neutralization of anionic DCh− species. SEM and FTIR are used for the analysis of film morphology and composition. Potentiodynamic and impedance spectroscopy studies show that PTFE films deposited by EPD provide protection of steel from corrosion. The use of DChNa allows the fabrication of composites by combined electrochemical strategies. Diamond-polypyrrole (PPy) films are prepared by an EPD-electropolymerization method. DChNa is a versatile co-dispersant for co-deposition of different materials by EPD or combined electrochemical methods.