Are there any important points to take into account when moving from commercially available disk electrodes (e.g., 3 mm diameter platinum disk electrodes) to a commercially available screen-printed or microfabricated electrodes?
Firstly, can anybody explain how the typical commercial disk electrodes are fabricated? Is the metal produced by an additive (sputtering) or subtractive method (or combination of both)?
I would also be interested in suggestions such as robustness (limiting number of scans, potential window, etc.), surface orientation (e.g., Au ), differences in surface immobilisation techniques, etc.
Thank you in advance.
Best regards,
Marie B.
The cylindrical type electrodes are generally made by embedding a metal or glassy carbon rod in an insulating polymeric material. Certainly, not on the whole length but a few mms, that is electrically connected using a Cu wire/rod. They have therefore an indefinitely long life time and are very robust (both electrochemically and mechanically). The surface modifications either intentional or by fouling can be removed by wet polishing.
The surface of screen-printed electrodes cannot be really renewed by mechanical means and are intended for a very limited number of measurements or single use.
It depends on the application.
Róbert E Gyurcsányi ,
Thank you very much. This response is very helpful.
Looking forward to hearing the additional responses of others.
Kind regards,
Marie B.
I can just give few practical advices.
1) Some SPE electrodes require special activation procedure before use. Check that on supplier’s web page. If they give such procedure, it is better to follow it.
2) SPEs are fine when you work in aqueous solutions. If you`d like to go for experiments in organic solvents you may expect some problems. Most of the SPE supports and masks dissolve or swell in organic solvents.
3) SPEs are more fragile than disk electrodes. In more harsh conditions you may observe removal of the metal film even if these conditions are still OK for disk electrode of the same metal.
4) SPEs surface is rather grainy and rough. If you need atomically flat surface of gold 111. You find such gold 111 coated slides in commercial sources, i.e., in this company:
https://www.platypustech.com/gold-thin-films/ultra-flat-gold-films
I have not used them by myself, so I cannot give any opinion. Maybe some other RG users have experience with such slides and may tell us how they perform in electrochemical experiments? I`m also curious.
5) Micro and nanofabricated electrodes it is a different story. The diffusion profile is completely different than in case of bulk electrode. Therefore, performance is different. Usually Faradaic currents are more pronounced than capacitive ones, CV has sigmoid shape, etc. There are different micro-/nanoelectrode types, i.e., single microelectrodes, microelectrodes arrays, interdigitated electrodes etc. To learn more you may go for some modern electrochemistry handbooks or review/basic research articles. Sometimes suppliers of electrochemical equipment put on their web pages short descriptions of the most popular electrochemical techniques that may be very useful, especially for researchers that are new in this field.
Maciej Cieplak
Thank you very much for your help and for this very detailed response.
The link is very interesting. I might find similar description for platinum.
Looking forward to hearing the additional responses of others.
Kind regards,
Marie B.
This might be interesting -
https://www.zimmerpeacocktech.com/knowledge-base/faq/gold-electrode-composition/
Hello Martin Peacock
Thank you for this very useful link.
Best regards,
Marie B.
Some SPE electrodes are inks which means that they are made at 150 deg C and are full of organic binders, whilst other are made from pastes at 800 deg C so the gold is much purer as all the organic material is burnt away, this is illustrated in this paper - https://www.zimmerpeacock.com/2019/09/06/zp-published-in-ieee/
The honest answer is you have to try and it is important to ask yourself the question 'am I going to SPE because I want perfect results, or because I would like to say my research can become a manufactured product', if you want perfect results use a disk electrode if you truly want to work towards a product then I recommend A-AC-G-AC-203-N - https://www.zimmerpeacocktech.com/products/electrochemical-sensors/value-screen-printed-electrodes/
Best
Martin
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