High throughput SECM imaging: Development and applications

EPFL的分析和物理电化学实验室（LEPA）与Oldenburg大学的凝聚态界面和电化学实验室（UOL）之间的联合资助申请的目的是将前者的设备微制造专业知识与后者的仪器设计和数据处理相结合，以开发扫描电化学显微镜（SECM）的新概念，其具体目标是成像无法执行的大区域现有的技术。本提案的要点是设计，制造和测试微机械软Tipp阵列，用于每次扫描并行记录32行图像。这种新颖的方法将特别用于成像用于蛋白质分离的银染色2D凝胶，和/或其各自的印迹。同样，它还将用于进一步开发最近与洛桑大学法医科学实验室合作开发的指纹成像技术。我们还将应用它来研究溴生成的表面改性，并测试技术涂层的缺陷。在第二阶段，我们希望开发一种内置微通道的新软尖端概念，以便对干基材成像，电解质在尖端输送，就像钢笔尖端的墨水一样。这也将不仅用于对干燥样品（如腐蚀金属）的表面反应性进行成像，而且还用于选择性地蚀刻表面，目的是通过电沉积或电接枝在干燥表面上形成图案或书写。

The aim of this combined grant application between the Laboratory of Analytical and Physical Electrochemistry (LEPA) from EPFL and the laboratory Condensed Matter Interfaces and Electrochemistry from Oldenburg University (UOL) is to combine the device microfabrication expertise of the former and the instrument design and data processing of the latter to develop new concepts in Scanning ElectroChemical Microscopy (SECM) with the specific aim to image large area that cannot performed with the existing technology. The gist of this proposal is the design, fabrication and tests of micro-machined soft Tipp arrays for the parallel recording of a 32-line image per scan. This novel methodology will be used in particular to image silver-stained 2D gels used in protein separation, and/or their respective blots. Similarly, it will also be used to develop further the fingerprint imaging technology recently developed in collaboration with the Forensic Science Laboratory at the University of Lausanne. We shall apply it also to study the surface modification by bromine generation, and to test technical coatings for defects. In a second stage, we would like to develop a new soft-tip concept with built-in microchannels so as to image dry substrates, the electrolyte being delivered at the tip like the ink at the tip of a fountain pen. This will also be used not only to image the surface reactivity of dry samples such as corroded metals but also to etch selectively surfaces with the aim to pattern them or to write on dry surfaces by electrodeposition or electrografting.