Nanoelectrochemistry with Carbon Nanoprobes

Professor Michael Mirkin of CUNY, Queens College, is supported by the Chemical Structure Dynamics and Mechanism (CSDM-A) program of the Division of Chemistry to visualize and quantitatively measure electrochemical surface reactivity with a high spatial resolution, detect and analyze single biological and artificial vesicles. The unifying theme of this project is the development of new methodology for mechanistic studies of electrochemical reactions based on unique capabilities of carbon nano-electrodes.

They are employed for quantitative nanoscale studies of several important chemical and biological systems. The broader impacts of this work include potential societal benefits from an improved understanding of electrochemical processes on the nanoscale that can facilitate the progress in sensors, energy storage, and other technological and biomedical systems.

The students involved in this project are getting multidisciplinary research training in interfacial electrochemistry, bioanalytical chemistry, and nanoscience.

Carbon nanoelectrodes will be chemically modified and used as scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) tips to investigate electrocatalytic processes, such as hydrogen evolution and hydrogen peroxide production via two-electron oxygen reduction reaction that cannot be measured at bare metal nano-electrodes. Another way to probe local heterogeneous reactivity is by measuring electron tunneling current between the carbon nano-electrode and a nanometer-sized electroactive object, such as a two-dimensional catalytic nanoflake.

Carbon nanocavities are to be employed for mechanistic studies of processes involving single vesicles by recently introduced electrochemical resistive-pulse technique. The goal is to identify a specific nano-object as the source of an electrochemical signal and then analyze its contents.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.