Evanescent wave cavity ring-down spectroscopy (EW-CRDS) has been used to study the interaction of the tris(2,2'-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) complex, [Ru(bpy)(3)](2+), at both native silica surfaces and surfaces modified with polyelectrolyte films. Both poly-l-lysine (PLL) and PLL/poly-l-glutamic acid (PGA) bilayer functionalized interfaces have been studied. Concentration isotherms exhibit Langmuir-type adsorption behavior on both silica and PGA-terminated surfaces from which equilibrium constants have been derived. The pH-dependence of the [Ru(bpy)(3)](2+) adsorption to silica and the PLL/PGA film has also been investigated. For the latter substrate, the effective surface pK(a) of the acid groups was found to be 5.5. The effect of supporting electrolyte was also investigated and was shown to have a significant effect on the extent of [Ru(bpy)(3)](2+) adsorption. A thin-layer electrochemical cell arrangement, in which a working electrode was positioned just above the substrate, was used to change the solution pH in a controlled way via the potential-pulsed chronoamperometric oxidation of water. By measuring the optical absorption using EW-CRDS during such experiments, the desorption of [Ru(bpy)(3)](2+) from the surface has been monitored in real time. Experiments were carried out at different cell thicknesses and at various pulse durations. By combining data from the EW-CRDS experiments with fluorescence confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) to determine the pH at the substrate surface, the pK(a) of the PLL/PGA film could be ascertained and was found to agree with the static pH isotherm measurements. These studies provide a platform for the further use of electrochemistry combined with EW-CRDS to investigate dynamic processes at interfaces.
The adsorption kinetics of Ag nanoparticles on a silica surface modified with poly-l-lysine (PLL) have been measured in situ by following the interfacial optical absorbance at 405 nm by evanescent wave cavity ring-down spectroscopy (EW-CRDS). Sensitivity toward nanoparticle detection is enhanced due to the plasmon resonance of the Ag nanoparticles. The redox-dissolution kinetics of the immobilized nanoparticles have been investigated by two distinct approaches. First, IrCl6 2− was generated electrochemically from IrCl6 3− by a chronoamperometric potential step in a thin-layer cell configuration formed between the silica surface and a Pt macroelectrode. The oxidative dissolution kinetics were obtained by monitoring the EW-CRDS signal as the nanoparticles dissolved. The reaction kinetics were extracted by complementary finite element modeling of diffusional and reaction processes. The second method of dissolution investigated involved the injection of IrCl6 2−(aq) directly at the surface by means of a microcapillary located close to the evanescent field.
The formation of polyaniline (PAni) nanoparticles on silica surfaces has been monitored in situ using evanescent wave cavity ring-down spectroscopy (EW-CRDS). Aniline hydrochloride in aqueous solution at different concentrations was oxidatively polymerized using sodium persulfate. The process was found to involve the nucleation and growth of polymer nanoparticles, whose size and coverages were measured using tapping mode atomic force microscopy (TM-AFM). The formation of PAni was confirmed by replacing the silica surface with indium doped tin oxide (ITO) electrodes and subsequently running cyclic voltammetry experiments on the material deposited, which yielded the characteristic electrochemical response. The number of active groups (monomers) per polymer particle was estimated using the peak current of the cyclic voltammograms, with knowledge of the nanoparticle surface coverage from TM-AFM analysis. The quantity of material in each particle was consistent with TM-AFM height data, assuming hemispherical particle morphology. The polymerization process was found to be governed by surface-controlled kinetics, from a fixed number of particle sites of 35 ((5) µm -2 . The reaction was first-order in aniline, with a rate constant for monomer addition of 0.7 ((0.4) × 10 -7 cm s -1 in the limit of large particle size. For smaller nanoparticles, however, at the early stage of polymerization, the polymerization rate constant appeared to be size-dependent and to increase with decreasing nanoparticle radius (assuming a hemispherical geometry). This could also be due to a change in the morphology of the nanoparticles at the very shortest times but may indicate size-dependent polymerization kinetics.
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