Newly developed methodologies are presented in which differential chemical and electrochemical reactivity can be temporally and spatially imaged and subsequently correlated with structural characteristics of nanostructured materials: an approach that we thrm "reactive imaging". By utilizing a combination of electrochemical methods and integrated optical and atomic force microscopies, a variety of experimental schemes can be proposed. Several preliminary examples are presented to illustrate the resolving power of these coupled techniques. In particular, the dissolution or "molecular corrosion" of luminescent thin films of the "molecular square" compound, [Re(CO)_3(Cl)(#mu#-pyrazine)]_4 in aqueous nitrobenzene solutions is examined. Simultaneous acquisition of luminescence and topographical data allows for estimation of the crystal dissolution rate. Additionally, the electrochromic stability of a conductive organic polymer (polyaniline) and a redox-active metal oxide (WO_3) are examined by employing two different reactive imaging schemes to correlate charge/ion transfer reactivity with film morphology.
展开▼
