Super-resolution Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy

Abstract

To achieve super-resolution scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM), we must overcome the theoretical limitation associated with noncontact electrochemical imaging of surface-generated species. This is the requirement for mass transfer to the electrode, which gives rise to the diffusional broadening of surface features. In this work, a procedure is developed for overcoming this limitation and thus generating “super-resolved” images using point spread function (PSF)-based deconvolution, where the point conductor plays the same role as the point emitter in optical imaging. In contrast to previous efforts in SECM towards this goal, our method uses a finite element model to generate a pair of corresponding blurred and sharp images for PSF estimation, avoiding the need to perform parameter optimization for effective deconvolution. It can therefore be used for retroactive data treatment and an enhanced understanding of the structure-property relationships that SECM provides.

Bridging the Gap between Single Nanoparticle Imaging and Global Electrochemical Response by Correlative Microscopy Assisted By Machine Vision

“…highlighted the power of unsupervised algorithms on the examples clustering of particle distributions, biological tissues, and atomic structures, that is still, however, poorly exploited in electrochemistry. [39,42,[46][47][48] Indeed, such automatized data treatment will provide various local descriptors for each (and all) nanoobjects imaged which can be used to reconstruct the global electrochemical response and in turns unveil the nanoscale contribution contained in an electrode response.…”

In situcharacterisation for nanoscale structure–performance studies in electrocatalysis

“…In the past few years, in situ mapping microscopy has witnessed significant progress, and has been widely applied for the investigation of dynamic changes of electrode materials under working conditions. 16,19,20,[26][27][28]…”

“…4a). 27,45 Recently, SECM was used to probe the local pH of an electrified interface. With a modified gold ultramicroelectrode as the probe in SECM, Koper and co-workers measured the interfacial pH at a fixed distance from the electrode during CO 2 RR, revealing a pH-buffering region due to the reversible switch of CO 2 and HCO 3 À .…”

Investigating electrochemical corrosion at Mg alloy-steel joint interface using scanning electrochemical cell impedance microscopy (SECCIM)

“…Since the microelectrodes in SECM and SVET are usually used at a constant height (especially for imaging), they are not as sensitive to changes in the faradaic current at grain boundaries or microstructure 1 . While some improvements to SECM increases resolution enough to reveal grain boundaries 2 , 3 , it has limitations due to diffusional broadening when imaging because the microelectrode does not contact the specimen 4 . Newly developed microscopic, droplet-based corrosion measurement techniques such as scanning electrochemical cell microscopy (SECCM) are used to capture localized or confined region electrochemical responses that can perform high resolution probing of grain boundaries, defects, and microstructures 5 – 8 .…”