Electrodepositing freestanding ultrathin membranes at the air-water interface

Electrodepositing freestanding ultrathin membranes at the air-water interface | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Physical Sciences - Article Electrodepositing freestanding ultrathin membranes at the air-water interface Shikuan Yang, Aoran Cui, Xiao Hong, Yue Liu, Kenji Mochizuki, and 6 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8016370/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Freestanding ultrathin metallic membranes (FUMMs) with nanometer thickness are essential elements for flexible and wearable devices as electrodes1-4. Conventional press-rolling or melt-spinning methods are impossible to prepare ultrathin metallic membranes5,6. The bottom-up Langmuir-Blodgett self-assembly method can prepare monolayer nanoparticle films at the air-liquid interface, however their weak mechanical strength constrains their application fields7-9. Wet chemical methods have been developed to prepare ultrathin metallic nanosheets, but the at most square micrometer area makes them unsuitable to be used in real macroscopic devices10. Up to now, the only way available to prepare FUMMs is to release the thermally or sputtered metallic films by dissolving the underneath sacrificial substrate1,11,12, which needs vacuum conditions and harmful chemicals, wastes the metal sources, and is time-consuming. Here we demonstrate a strategy to switch the nucleation and growth sites from the conventional electrode surface spontaneously to the air-electrolyte interface where covered by carefully designed multi-lamellar architecture consisting of alternatively stacked metal ion and surfactant ion layers, realizing direct electrodeposition of FUMMs at the air-electrolyte interface by electrochemically reducing the metal ions in place under ambient conditions. The growth speed of the FUMMs can reach > 3 cm2/min with the thickness immediately adjustable by the applied potentials from less than 100 nm to several micrometers. The area of the electrodeposited FUMMs can easily reach 100 cm2 and in principle is only constrained by that of the electrolyte container. The FUMMs at the air-electrolyte interface can be transferred onto any arbitrary solid substrates or liquid surfaces. The FUMMs can regrow for hundreds of times at the air-electrolyte interface provided that the consumed metal ions are replenished in time. More strikingly, the microstructure, the thickness, and in turn the transparency and conductivity of the nanofilms can be immediately designed via varying the applied potentials, allowing us to prepare striped nanofilms by programming the potential waveforms. As preliminary examples, the FUMMs are used to construct high-performance flexible plasmonic nanosensors and sensitive pressure sensors. This study provides a simple but robust electrochemical approach to prepare FUMMs at the air-liquid interface with promising applications in next-generation flexible and wearable electronics. Physical sciences/Materials science/Techniques and instrumentation/Design, synthesis and processing Physical sciences/Nanoscience and technology/Nanoscale materials/Synthesis and processing Freestanding nanofilm electrodeposition striped nanopattern interface fabrication sensor Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files VideoS2.mp4 Video S2 VideoS13.mp4 Video S13 VideoS10.mp4 Video S10 VIdeoS11.mp4 Video S11 VideoS5.mp4 Video S5 VideoS6.mp4 Video S6 VideoS12.mp4 Video S12 VideoS4.mp4 Video S4 VideoS3.mp4 Video S3 SupportingInformation.docx Supplementary Information VideoS9.mp4 Video S9 VideoS8.mp4 Video S8 VideoS1.mp4 Video S1 VideoS7.mp4 Video S7 Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8016370","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Physical Sciences - Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":548168510,"identity":"91284fd3-5dc6-4b13-89ba-4838877064e7","order_by":0,"name":"Shikuan 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sensor","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8016370/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8016370/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Freestanding ultrathin metallic membranes (FUMMs) with nanometer thickness are essential elements for flexible and wearable devices as electrodes1-4. Conventional press-rolling or melt-spinning methods are impossible to prepare ultrathin metallic membranes5,6. The bottom-up Langmuir-Blodgett self-assembly method can prepare monolayer nanoparticle films at the air-liquid interface, however their weak mechanical strength constrains their application fields7-9. Wet chemical methods have been developed to prepare ultrathin metallic nanosheets, but the at most square micrometer area makes them unsuitable to be used in real macroscopic devices10. Up to now, the only way available to prepare FUMMs is to release the thermally or sputtered metallic films by dissolving the underneath sacrificial substrate1,11,12, which needs vacuum conditions and harmful chemicals, wastes the metal sources, and is time-consuming. Here we demonstrate a strategy to switch the nucleation and growth sites from the conventional electrode surface spontaneously to the air-electrolyte interface where covered by carefully designed multi-lamellar architecture consisting of alternatively stacked metal ion and surfactant ion layers, realizing direct electrodeposition of FUMMs at the air-electrolyte interface by electrochemically reducing the metal ions in place under ambient conditions. The growth speed of the FUMMs can reach \u003e 3 cm2/min with the thickness immediately adjustable by the applied potentials from less than 100 nm to several micrometers. The area of the electrodeposited FUMMs can easily reach 100 cm2 and in principle is only constrained by that of the electrolyte container. The FUMMs at the air-electrolyte interface can be transferred onto any arbitrary solid substrates or liquid surfaces. The FUMMs can regrow for hundreds of times at the air-electrolyte interface provided that the consumed metal ions are replenished in time. More strikingly, the microstructure, the thickness, and in turn the transparency and conductivity of the nanofilms can be immediately designed via varying the applied potentials, allowing us to prepare striped nanofilms by programming the potential waveforms. As preliminary examples, the FUMMs are used to construct high-performance flexible plasmonic nanosensors and sensitive pressure sensors. This study provides a simple but robust electrochemical approach to prepare FUMMs at the air-liquid interface with promising applications in next-generation flexible and wearable electronics.","manuscriptTitle":"Electrodepositing freestanding ultrathin membranes at the air-water interface","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-11-21 04:15:02","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8016370/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"38f615bb-e2a4-4343-8745-b6a3ac2f0d94","owner":[],"postedDate":"November 21st, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":58326253,"name":"Physical sciences/Materials science/Techniques and instrumentation/Design, synthesis and processing"},{"id":58326254,"name":"Physical sciences/Nanoscience and technology/Nanoscale materials/Synthesis and processing"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-02-23T05:30:30+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-11-21 04:15:02","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8016370","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8016370","identity":"rs-8016370","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}