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Nanoparticle‐Impact Experiments are Highly Sensitive to the Presence of Adsorbed Species on Electrode Surfaces
Author(s) -
Kätelhön Enno,
Cheng Wei,
BatchelorMcAuley Christopher,
Tschulik Kristina,
Compton Richard G.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
chemelectrochem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.182
H-Index - 59
ISSN - 2196-0216
DOI - 10.1002/celc.201402014
Subject(s) - electrode , microelectrode , nanoparticle , adsorption , molecule , electrochemistry , aqueous solution , materials science , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemistry , nanotechnology , chromatography , organic chemistry
We theoretically and experimentally investigate the influence of partial surface blocking on the electrochemistry of nanoparticles impacting at an electrode. To this end, we introduce an analytical model for the adsorption of single blocking molecules on the electrode and calculate the resulting fractional electrode coverage. We find that even small amounts of adsorbed molecules can fully suppress detection of impacts of nanoparticles while the electrode characteristics in the detection of electroactive molecules hardly change. Our findings are supported by experimental data on the indigo nanoparticle electroreduction at a carbon microelectrode (radius 5.5 μm) in aqueous solution. We find that nanoimpacts are fully suppressed in the presence of acetone at concentrations of 250 n m, which have a negligible effect on the electrode kinetics of the Fe(CN) ${_6^{3 - /4 - } }$ couple.