Nanoelectrochemistry Applications Based on Electrospinning

Matteo Scampicchio, Maria Stella Cosio, Solomon Lemma Mengistu and Saverio 

Since the early talks of Richard Feynman in its There s Plenty of Room at the Bottom in 1959, there have been always a concern on what nano means and applies to. Recently, the Royal Society tried to make order between the definitions of nanoscience and nanotechnology, both referring to, respectively, the study or the preparation of materials from 100 nm down to the atomic level (approximately 0.2 nm) [1], Later, the British Standard Institution defined nanomaterial as material having one or more external dimensions in the nanoscale or which is nanostructured. [2] Accordingly, Murray makes a noticeable attempt to apply these concepts to nanoelectrochemistry of nanoparticles, nanoelectrodes, and nanopores, referring them as a dimensional scale of electrodes and electrochemical events [3]. 

A weakness of this interpretation is that most of the molecular events studied by electrochemistry already fit within the 1-lOOOnm range of dimensions. Except to single atoms and molecules, which fall below this lower limit (which was introduced, indeed, to avoid single or small groups of atoms from being designed improperly as nano-objects), most of the matter studied by electrochemistry can be considered a part of nanoelectrochemistry. 

Edited by Alberto Escarpa, Marfa Cristina Gonzdlez and Miguel Angel Ldpez. 2015 John Wiley Sons, Ltd. Published 2015 by John Wiley Sons, Ltd. 

To focus on the topic, in the next sections, the general term nanoelectrochemistry will be whittled down to the study of conductive surfaces coated with material having one or more external dimensions in the nanoscale and the apphcations will be limited to electrochemical sensors and biosensors modified with nonwoven nanofibrous membranes prepared by electrospinning. 

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