In this paper, the electrochemical behaviors of a single gold nanoparticle attached on a nanometer sized electrode have been studied. The single nanoparticle was characterized by using electrochemical methods. Since there is only one nanoparticle on the electrode, unarguable information for that sized particle could be obtained. Our preliminary results show that it becomes more difficult to oxidize gold nanoparticle or reduce gold nanoparticle oxide as the radius of the particle becomes smaller. Also, the peak potential of the reduction of gold nanoparticle oxide is proportional to the reciprocal of the radius of the particle. Theoretical and experimental evidence shows that the physical properties of metal nanoparticles differ from those of bulk metal, and these properties depend on particles size [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Due to the fact that the size of metal nanoparticles with a diameter in the range of 1-10 nm is between a free diffusion molecule and a bulk metal, the study of such nanoparticles is especially interesting [4]. Electrochemistry has been used to study metal nanoparticles long time ago [1]. Electrochemical studies of metalnanoparticles are mainly focused on electrochemical sensing, electrocatalysis [5,7], single electron charging [2] etc.[4] Both theoretically and experimentally important results have been obtained from these studies. Electrochemical stability of nanoparticles is one of its fundamental aspects. From electrochemical point of view, an electrochemically stable metal nanoparticle means that the oxidation potential of the metal particle is more positive than its bulk metal or the reduction potential of the particle is more negative than its bulk materials if the particle is a metal oxide. However, contradictory conclusions on the electrochemical stability of nanoparticles could be found from previous electrochemical studies. For example, results from several groups show that the electrochemical stability of nanoparticles is increased when the size of the nanoparticles is decreased [3,4]. However, opposite conclusion can also be found [1,8,9].
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