Ultramicroelectrodes step methods

The use of ultramicroelectrodes for fast measurements has been recognized and developed by others and has been discussed in the literature. For the most part, the existing reports have concentrated on cyclic voltammetry. We believe that potential step methods are more appropriate to the realization of the promise of high speed kinetic measurements at ultramicroelectrodes, so we have concentrated on them. A preliminary report of our activity has appeared. ... 

Quantitative investigations of the kinetics of these a-coupling steps suffered because rate constants were beyond the timescale of normal voltammetric experiments until ultramicroelectrodes and improved electrochemical equipment made possible a new transient method calledjhst scan voltammetry [27]. With this technique, cyclic voltammetric experiments up to scan rates of 1 MV s are possible, and species with lifetimes in the nanosecond scale can be observed. Using this technique, P. Hapiot et al. [28] were the first to obtain data on the lifetimes of the electrogenerated pyrrole radical cation and substituted derivatives. The resulting rate constants for the dimerization of such monomers lie in the order of 10 s . The same... 

On the contrary, the radical cation of anthracene is unstable. Under normal volt-ammetric conditions, the radical cation, AH +, formed at the potential of the first oxidation step, undergoes a series of reactions (chemical -> electrochemical -> chemical -> ) to form polymerized species. This occurs because the dimer, tri-mer, etc., formed from AH +, are easier to oxidize than AH. As a result, the first oxidation wave of anthracene is irreversible and its voltammetric peak current corresponds to that of a process of several electrons (Fig. 8.20(a)). However, if fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) at an ultramicroelectrode (UME) is used, the effect of the follow-up reactions is removed and a reversible one-electron CV curve can be obtained (Fig. 8.20(b)) [64], By this method, the half-life of the radical cat-... 

Yet when applied to current reversal techniques, such as double-step chronampero-metry of cyclic voltammetry, these methods require that an appreciable current be observed during the backward perturbation, that is, for t > 0, in potentiostatic methods or after the potential scan inversion in cyclic voltammetry. This requires that the characteristic time 0 of the method is adjusted to match the half-life ti/2 of the electrogenerated intermediate. Today, owing to the recent development of ultramicroelectrodes, 0 can be routinely varied from a few seconds to a few nanoseconds [102]. Yet with basic standard electrochemical equipment, 0 is usually restricted from the second to the low millisecond range. Thus for experimental situations involving faster chemical reactions, current rever-... 

The synthesis of ECPs can be electrochemically or chemically achieved. The significance of the electrochemical method is that the potymer is obtained in one step as a film deposited on the electrode surface from the oxidation of the corresponding monomer in solution. The film thickness can be easily controlled from the electric charge consumed during the electropolymerization reaction. So, nanometric-thickness films can be electrodeposited on macroelectrodes but also on ultramicroelectrodes. Moreover, the electrochemical route allows the deposition of uniform films onto... 

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