A current opinion on electrophoretic deposition in pulsed and alternating fields

Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) is a colloidal production process developed in the early 20th century. Industrial scale EPD for the production of electronic components and phosphorescent screens and in the form of cataphoretic painting has known some success. Despite its limited practical applications, the inherent versatility of EPD has never ceased to fuel research into this technique. One of the major drives of this research was to render the method more environmentally friendly by enabling deposition from aqueous suspensions. One particular route, suggested to circumvent the problems caused by the use of water in EPD, is the use of alternating or pulsed fields. Recently, the use of alternating fields in EPD has been investigated for the deposition of biological matter in the form of cells and molecules. With this new avenue of research opening up and coinciding with a rise in biotechnological processes, one can expect a renewed interest in traditional EPD and fundamental research on the use of pulsed and alternating fields in this technique. Hence, this review attempts to summarize a century's worth of both fundamental and applied research for scientists venturing into the field of EPD.