Nanoelectrochemistry nanostructures

In this chapter, attention is focused on in-situ STM and AFM, and recent advances of in-situ SPM in surface electrochemistry and nanoelectrochemistry are introduced, with applications that include surface characterization, nanostructuring, and molecular electronics. First, a brief discussion of the principles and features of STM and AFM is provided, and this is followed by some selected examples of the capabilities of both techniques in the study of surface and nanoelectrochemistry, mostly acquired in recent studies conducted by the present author s group. Emphasis is placed on the roles of in-situ STM and AFM from a methodological point of view. Finally, the prospects for the further development of in-situ SPM are reviewed. 

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]. 

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