Development and Applications of Nanofabricated Electrodes for Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy

摘要

Over the last decade, dramatic progresses in fabrication and synthesis of nanomaterials have enabled reproducible and controlled production of nanometer-sized structures with desired size, shape, physical and chemical properties. Nanostructures created in this fashion are essential building blocks of complex nanosystems for various applications. In particular, electronically conductive nanostructures are attractive candidates as electrode materials for both fundamental studies and electrochemical applications in fields such as sensors, energy storage, functional molecular electronic devices, and electrocatalysis.In my Ph.D. work, I explored frontiers in nanoscale electrochemistry utilizing novel electrode systems based on conductive nanostructures with shape and size controlled by advanced nanofabrication/synthesis methods. Specifically, I developed a new methodology based on scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) to discover that an individual one-dimensional nanostructure such as a metal nanoband and a single-walled carbon nanotube serves as a highly reactive electrode. This discovery is of great importance for future applications of the novel nanomaterials. Moreover, by integrating modern nanofabrication methods, I created nanometer-sized electrodes with controlled size and geometry. The significance of this achievement is that better spatial resolution will be obtainable by utilizing these nanofabricated electrodes as probes of SECM.