Rapid Prototyped Optically Transparent Thin‐Layer Electrode Holder for Spectroelectrochemistry in Bench‐Top Spectrophotometers

Abstract

A new optically transparent thin layer electrode (OTTLE) cell and holder have been designed to facilitate spectroelectrochemical measurements in standard bench-top absorbance and fluorescence spectrophotometers. The use of rapid prototyping for the OTTLE cell holder combined with the selection of inexpensive OTE materials results in a practical, low-cost spectroelectrochemical cell. The cell was characterized by thin-layer cyclic voltammetry and coulometry of ferricyanide/ferrocyanide. Spectroelectrochemistry of tris-(2,2'-bipyridine) ruthenium(II) chloride (Ru-(bpy) 3 Cl 2 ) and 1-hydroxypyrene (1-pyOH) was done with commercially available bench-top absorbance and fluorescence spectrophotometers. The good correlation between the results obtained and the known properties of each compound demonstrate that the OTTLE cell and holder provide an effective means for making spectroelectrochemical measurements in bench-top absorbance and fluorescence spectrophotometers.

Optically Transparent Thin-Film Electrode Chip for Spectroelectrochemical Sensing

“…Thin-Layer Spectroelectrochemical Cell Setup. The OTTLE cell is based on the design reported by Wilson et al 40 The cell was constructed from the fabricated OTE chip, and a polished quartz slide was cut to 15 × 8 × 1 mm as shown in Figure 3. The front and back plates of the cell were separated by 177.8 μm-thick silicone spacers (Specialty Manufacturing Inc., Saginaw, MI).…”

Emission Spectroelectrochemistry: Cell Design and Setup

“…In practice, this type of cells was built with working electrodes based on vapour-deposited metallic films [40], transparent conducting oxides films [40,41] or presented small holes in its surface [42] such as for example, minigrid electrodes [43][44][45][46]2,47]. In addition, the PVD technique has the advantages of producing reproducible metallic surfaces with high crystallographic quality, low roughness, low electrical resistance and with a defined geometry [15].…”

A three-dimensional printed cell for rapid, low-volume spectroelectrochemistry

“…A 3D printed OTTLE cell holder has recently been reported [8], but the small path length of the resultant cell precludes the analysis of samples with limited solubility such as the majority of proteins. Instead, a cell insert maintaining a 1 cm light path while minimizing the solution volume of a standard cuvette was created.…”