Electrochemical impacts complement light scattering techniques for in situ nanoparticle sizing

Abstract

Electrochemical sizing of nanoparticles via particle impacts sizes smaller particles than optical methods.

Electro‐Oxidation of Titanium Carbide Nanoparticles in Aqueous Acid Creates TiC@TiO2 Core‐Shell Structures

“…Having evidenced that the TiC NPs undergo irreversible oxidation in the aqueous medium and positive potential window when oxidized as ensembles on an electrode surface, we extended our investigation to the single‐particle level. We conducted nano‐impact measurements, which record the electrochemical change that a single NP undergoes during a collision with a potentiostated microelectrode surface [16,33] . The charge appears in the form of current spikes and each spike represents the arrival/collision of NP with the electrode during its Brownian motion resulting in NP oxidation/reduction on collision [34,35] .…”

Flame Synthesis of Carbon and Metal-Oxide Nanoparticles: Flame Types, Effects of Combustion Parameters on Properties and Measurement Methods

“…This technique also provides information about the surface charge in NPs, as shown by Chang et al [ 68 ], for CNPs produced by flame synthesis. Although flame synthesis studies mostly applied this method in ex-situ conditions, it has been applied for in-situ measurements of nanoparticle sizes [ 104 , 105 , 106 ].…”

Electrocatalysis using nanomaterials

“…However, TEM only measures samples where the particles are completely dry and clean. Xie et al [68] used electron tomography to show that even for particles that appeared to have nearly spherical shape there was an overestimation of approximately 8% in particle diameter. Liquid-cell electrochemical TEM experiments, in turn, have been used to study electrochemical reactions in a thin film cell with windows to allow transmission of a focused electron beam inside the electron microscope [69].…”