Electrochemical techniques, anodic distribution

In the standard chemical preparation methods, the properties, especially the size and size distribution of the nanoparticles, are defined by the choice of the reaction conditions, reactant concentrations, etc. The use of electrochemical techniques to generate nuclei has the advantage that the supersaturation is determined by the applied potential or current density. Thus, the size of the particles can be controlled by electrochemical instrumentation rather than by changing the experimental conditions. Reetz and Helbig [115] demonstrated how electrochemical methods can be used to produce metal colloids of nanometer size and more importantly how particle size can be controlled in a simple manner by adjusting the current density [159]. First, a sacrificial anode was used as the source of the metal ions, which were then reduced at the cathode. Later, a more general approach was introduced, where metal salts were used as the starting material [160]. The particles were stabilized by alkylammonium or betaine salts. With a suitable choice of surfactants, the electrochemical method can be applied in the preparation of different shapes of particles, e.g., nanorods [161]. 

Electrography — Electrography, introduced independently by A. Glazunov and H. Fritz, is an obsolete technique for the direct electrochemical analysis of solid materials. The principle is that a solid specimen is pressed on a paper which is soaked with an electrolyte solution. By anodic oxidation of the surface of the solid specimen the reaction products (e.g., nickel(II) ions) react with a reagent in the paper (e.g., dimethylglyoxime) to give colored reaction product (red in case of nickel(II) and dimethylglyoxime). This produces a print that clearly shows the distribution of the reactive element (nickel, in our example) on the surface of the specimen. 

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