Volume 233, 2022

Nano-confined electrochemical reaction studied by electrochemical surface forces apparatus

Abstract

Electrochemical reactions in a nano-space are different from those in bulk solutions due to structuring of the liquid molecules and peculiar ion behavior at the electric double layer and are important for applications involving sensors and energy devices. The electrochemical surface forces apparatus (EC-SFA) we developed enabled us to study the electrochemical reactions in a solution nano-confined between the electrodes with varying distance (D) at nm resolution. We recorded measurements of the current–distance profiles due to the electrochemical reaction of the redox couples in the electrolyte nano-confined between Pt electrodes using our EC-SFA. We observed a long-range feedback current due to redox cycling and the sudden current increase at a short distance, the latter for the first time. This sudden current increase was two orders greater than the conventional feedback current and was observed at D < 5 nm when the electrodes were approaching and D < 200 nm on separation. We simultaneously measured the electric double layer force and the current between the electrodes in the solution to study the mechanisms of this sudden current increase in the short distance range. The results revealed a molecular insight as to how the redox species affect the current between two electrodes under nano-confinement. This study demonstrated that EC-SFA is a powerful tool for obtaining fundamental knowledge about the nano-confined electrochemical reactions for nanoelectrodes which can be applied to sensors and energy devices.

Graphical abstract: Nano-confined electrochemical reaction studied by electrochemical surface forces apparatus

Associated articles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 8 2021
Accepted
21 9 2021
First published
10 12 2021

Faraday Discuss., 2022,233, 206-221

Author version available

Nano-confined electrochemical reaction studied by electrochemical surface forces apparatus

M. Kasuya, D. Kubota, S. Fujii and K. Kurihara, Faraday Discuss., 2022, 233, 206 DOI: 10.1039/D1FD00060H

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements