Nanogap Electrochemistry of Interfacial Charge-Transfer Reactions

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With support from the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Shigeru Amemiya at University of Pittsburgh and his group will be utilizing a nanogap (a gap with a width of 10 nm) to develop the novel electrochemical method that combines cyclic voltammetry (CV) with scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM). The nanogap-based approach that was developed in the Amemiya laboratory overcomes the limitations of widely used CV and SECM methods and enables completely new measurements of interfacial charge-transfer reactions at extremely high rates on laterally heterogeneous surfaces. The versatile nanoelectrochemical method will be useful for the characterization of nanomaterials such as monolayer graphene and electrocatalytic nanoparticles, as well as for investigation of rapid charge-transfer reactions such as electron transfer at redox-active self-assembled monolayers and ion transfer at liquid/liquid interfaces. Such studies will massively augment our knowledge and understanding of interfacial charge-transfer reactions, which are the basis of future technological developments in energy conversion and storage, molecular electronics, and ion sensing and separation in addition to fundamental advancements in various scientific areas, especially, in electrochemistry, nanosceince, and material science. The implementation of the nanogap-based electrochemical method as a routine experimental tool among scientific community will be accelerated by commercializing tailor-made nanoelectrodes and by sharing simulation programs for data analysis. The integration of the electrochemical research into undergraduate teaching will be promoted by the development of pencil-lead-based voltammetric electrodes as an educational tool to discover the lipophilicity of various ions as the critical molecular property related to their environmental toxicity and pharmaceutical activity.