Electrochemical machining has the potential to allow machining at the nanometer scale. A nano electrode is an essential tool in nano-electrochemical machining. In this paper, the mechanism of liquid membrane electrochemical etching is studied, and a processing platform is developed. The processing voltage, initial tungsten diameter and electrolyte concentration are control factors in nano electrode fabrication. An orthogonal experiment was conducted using these three processing parameters. Experimental results showed that the electrolyte concentration had the most significant effect on nano electrode fabrication, where the optimal machining parameters are the following: processing voltage of 6 V, initial tungsten diameter of 200 m and potassium hydroxide electrolyte concentration of 1 mol/L. Using these optimal machining parameters, an 85 nanometers diameter tool electrode with an aspect ratio of 20 was obtained in several minutes. Successful nano electrode fabrication provides technological support and a theoretical basis for future research in nanoelectrochemical machining.

Silver nanowires are an ideal type of nano-electrode for electrochemical micromachining due to their large aspect ratio and good conductivity. In this paper, self-assembled silver nanowires electrode are used as the tool electrode for electrochemical micromachining. It shows that the silver nanowires fail in electrochemical micromachining. The failure mechanism is researched by computer simulation and experimentation. And the results show that the silver nanowires dissolve on account of the temperature rise when the temperature exceed the melting point of Ga. In addition, the chemical reaction of the silver nanowire in dilute sulfuric acid solution accelerates, intensifying the dissolution of the silver nanowire. Results indicate that the silver nanowire electrode is not suitable for electrochemical micromachining directly. Then, some protective measures should be taken for silver nanowire when it is used as tool electrode in electrochemical micromachining.