Electrochemically Active Surface

FIGURE 2-13 STM image of an electrochemically activated glassy-carbon surface. (Reproduced with permission from reference 46.)... 

Detailed and shorter39 45 reviews of the electrochemical promotion literature prior to 1996 have been published, mainly addressed either to the catalytic or to the electrochemical community. Earlier applications of solid electrolytes in catalysis, including solid electrolyte potentiometry and electrocatalysis have been reviewed previously. The present book is the first on the electrochemical activation of catalytic reactions and is addressed both to the electrochemical and catalytic communities. We stress both the electrochemical and catalytic aspects of electrochemical promotion and hope that the text will be found useful and easy to follow by all readers, including those not frequently using electrochemical, catalytic and surface science methodology and terminology. 

C.G. Vayenas, and S. Neophytides, Electrochemical Activation of Catalysis In situ controlled promotion of catalyst surfaces, in Catalysis-Special periodical Report, Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge (1996), pp. 199-253. 

In EMIRS and SNIFTIRS measurements the "inactive" s-polarlsed radiation is prevented from reaching the detector and the relative intensities of the vibrational bands observed in the spectra from the remaining p-polarised radiation are used to deduce the orientation of adsorbed molecules. It should be pointed out, however, that vibrational coupling to adsorbate/adsorbent charge transfer (11) and also w electrochemically activated Stark effect (7,12,13) can lead to apparent violations of the surface selection rule which can invalidate simple deductions of orientation. 

Tian ZQ, Ren B, Mao BW. 1997. Extending surface Raman spectroscopy to transition metal surfaces for practical applications. 1. Vibrational properties of thiocyanate and carbon monoxide adsorbed on electrochemically activated platinum surfaces. J Phys Chem B 101 1338-1346. 

Nitration of the surface of polypyrrole and the subsequent reduction of the nitrate groups has been reported [244] and Bidan et al. [306, 307] have investigated the electrochemistry of a number of polymers based on pyrroles with /V-substituents which are themselves electrochemically active. Polypyrrole has also been successfully deposited onto polymeric films of ruthenium complexes [387], and has been used as an electrode for the deposition and stripping of mercury [388], As with most conducting polymers, several papers have also appeared on the use of polypyrrole in battery systems (e.g. [327, 389] and Ref. therein). 

Apart from electron promoters a large number of electron mediators have long been investigated to make redox enzymes electrochemically active on the electrode surface. In the line of this research electron mediators such as ferrocene and its derivatives have successfully been incorporated into an enzyme sensor for glucose [3]. The mediator was easily accessible to both glucose oxidase and an electron tunnelling pathway could be formed within the enzyme molecule [4]. The present authors [5,6] and Lowe and Foulds [7] used a conducting polymer as a molecular wire to connect a redox enzyme molecule to the electrode surface. 

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