Electrodeposition of Sol-Gel-Based Composite Films

The sol-gel precursors can be co-electrodeposited with various species forming composite films. The species that have been co-electrodeposited with sol-gel can be divided into three categories. The first category consists of electrochemically 

Since electrodeposition of sol-gel films is driven by the local pH change on the electrode surfe.ce, it allows codeposition with other pH-responsive materials such as chitosan [61,62,67,70] and cationic epoxy resin [71]. The works 

4 Electrochemical Codeposition of Sol-Gel-Based Hybrid and Composite Films 1393 

Sol-gel films can also be co-electrodeposited with electrochemically inert materials by embedding them in the matrix. The composite films may improve the performance of the sol-gel films in corrosion protection, electroanalysis, and so on. Furthermore, the species that are co-electrodeposited may introduce enormous functionalities into the films leading to various applications. In this case, the sol-gel film serves as a platform for entrapping functional materials. This will be introduced in detail in the following section based on the applications of the films. Here, we illustrate a typical system where gold nanopartides (Au NPs) were co-electrodeposited with silica sol-gel films. 

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