Bulk Electrosynthesis of Patchy Particles with Highly Controlled Asymmetric Features

Asymmetric modification of particles with various patches of different composition and size at predefined positions is an important challenge in contemporary surface chemistry, as such particles have numerous potential applications, ranging from materials science and (photo)catalysis to self-assembly and drug delivery. However, approaches allowing the synthesis of this kind of complex objects in the bulk of a solution in a straightforward way are currently lacking. In this context, bipolar electrochemistry (BE) is a powerful technique for the asymmetric modification of conducting objects. Herein, this approach is used for the highly controlled modification of particles with different metal patches, generated at specific locations of isotropic objects. The synthesis is carried out in the bulk of the solution and leads to predefined patterns of increasing complexity, including even a specific chiral arrangement of the patches. Bipolar electrochemistry is used as a versatile tool to modify the surface of particles with various metal patches, located at predefined positions. The complexity of the modification can be fine-tuned, leading for the extreme case of multi-Janus particles to chiral features.image