Background
- Page ID
- 60721
The experiment titled Cyclic Voltammetry at Solid Electrodes is a precursor to this experiment with microelectrodes. Please review the Background and Theory sections of that experiment to prepare for this one. Two online articles of interest are:
http://www.utdallas.edu/~tres/microe...rodes_ch01.pdf. This article describes how to make microelectrodes, their properties, and illustrates uses and applications.
http://www.iupac.org/publications/pa...tulik_1483.pdf. This article is part of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) commission’s report discussing definition, characterization and applications of microelectrodes.
What is the dimension of a microelectrode and how does it behave electrochemically in comparison to macro-sized electrodes? There are several different geometries and configurations of microelectrodes (e.g., spherical micro-ball, thin cylindrical shaped fiber, tapered microtip, etc.). For the current discussion, the microelectrode will be a flat disk configuration with diameter of tens of micrometers or less. For example, a popular size is a 10 μm diameter glassy carbon, Pt or Au disk. At the extreme of smallness, a microelectrode made from a carbon multi-wall nanotube of 100 nm in diameter has been reported [ref. 1].