Wain, A J; Cox, D; Zhou, S; Turnbull, A (2012) Fabrication of Probes for in-situ mapping of electrocatalytic activity at the nanoscale. In: Materials Challenges and Testing for Supply of Energy and Resources. Springer, pp. 129-141. ISBN 9783642233470

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Abstract

Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) is well established as a powerful means to spatially map the electrochemical activity of materials. By scanning a microelectrode probe over a surface immersed in an electrolyte solution, spatially resolved information about surface activity can be gained through the measurement of local electrochemical processes. The combination of SECM with atomic force microscopy (SECM-AFM) has been identified as an elegant means to take the resolution of such local electrochemical measurements down to the nanoscale. The integration of an addressable electrode onto dual function scanning force probes is advantageous not only because of the small electrode dimensions, but moreover because this permits SECM scanning to be conducted at constant tip-surface separation using the AFM cantilever optical feedback. Thus, topographical features can be easily measured and deconvoluted from activity variations, and short working distances can be achieved.

In this work we present two novel approaches to the fabrication of probes for SECM-AFM. One method involves the modification of commercially available metallic needle electric force microscopy (EFM) to yield high-aspect ratio coated needle probes with an addressable nanodisk electrode at the apex. The second ap-proach involves a focused ion beam (FIB) milling procedure to integrate a plati-num electrode into commercial silicon nitride AFM probes. The application of the needle probes to SECM-AFM imaging is demonstrated using a gold-on-silicon patterned substrate.

Item Type:	Book Chapter/Section
Subjects:	Advanced Materials Advanced Materials > Electrochemistry
Publisher:	Springer
Last Modified:	02 Feb 2018 13:14
URI:	http://eprintspublications.npl.co.uk/id/eprint/5364

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