Editorial pubs.acs.org/accounts
Electrochemistry at the Nanoscale: Tackling Old Questions, Posing New Ones Guest Editorial for the Accounts of Chemical Research special issue on “Nanoelectrochemistry”. Faradaic processes, and fluid flow. Finally, the use of nanoscale probes also extends into other scientific areas, not least the study of neurotransmitter release in individual living cells or cell networks. While many of the examples above are of a fundamental nature, current advances in nanoelectrochemistry and related nanomaterials are also being directly employed in applications spanning catalysis, micro- and nanomachining, energy conversion, and energy storage. Because many approaches are still in their infancy and directly coupled to advances in nanomaterial syntheses or electrode nanoarchitectures, the path from fundamental insight into potential new application is often surprisingly short. It is worth noting that elementary electron-transfer processes take place almost exclusively on the nanometer scale, from which it is tempting to infer that nanotechnology can bring little that is new to electrochemistry. The works presented in this Special Issue challenge the validity of this statement in myriad ways, instead demonstrating how electrochemistry contributes to nanoscience and vice versa.
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he advent of methods for shaping, characterizing, and interacting with matter on dimensions approaching those of individual molecules has cut across disciplines, bringing new fundamental insights and experimental capabilities. This Special Issue of Accounts of Chemical Research addresses the impact this development is having on the field of electrochemistry, as well as the myriad of contributions made by electrochemists to nanoscience. Much of the classic conceptual and theoretical framework of electrochemistry is based on mean-field descriptions of average fluxes and reaction rates. While the underlying microscopic processes can often be inferred from macroscopic measurements, experience suggests that this is not always straightforward or fully representative. There is much to be learned from probing the behavior of single redox molecules, individual catalytic sites, and single-electron-transfer events. Thus, it is no coincidence that a significant portion of the initial effort in nanoelectrochemistry has concentrated on the development of methods capable of directly probing new regimes of length, time, or absolute sensitivity. Many of these advances build directly upon the conventional toolbox of electrochemical methods, for example, the application of amperometry to probe single-nanoparticle electrochemistry in collision experiments or the use of multielectrode geometries with nanometer dimensions to dramatically enhance current responses through redox cycling. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy at submicrometer dimensions is also being downscaled, a challenge due to the high frequencies involved. At the forefront of the new methods are in situ imaging techniques with the ability to resolve the behavior of individual electrochemically active entities or even single sites. Having become a reality and being further developed at breakneck pace, these span (often in overlapping combinations) electrochemical scanned probe techniques, high-resolution electron microscopy, and advanced optical methods such as subresolution particle tracking and surface-plasmon imaging. The same trends apply to unconventional spectroscopies, from molecular electrical junctions to nonlinear optical techniques such as surface- or tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. These new tools, together with theory and modeling of redox-active nanostructures, are being applied to address classic questions and to advance new opportunities in electrochemistry. The link between the design and synthesis of nanoparticles and their electrocatalytic properties is being sharply scrutinized, as is the relation between the properties of individual particles and those of their ensembles. Even the properties of conventional materials such as graphite (and associated carbon nanomaterials) are helping to better elucidate the complex relationship between material heterogeneity, local electronic structure, and electrocatalytic properties. In some cases, new tools also lead to the uncovering of new phenomena, for example, the subtle couplings between ionic transport, © 2016 American Chemical Society
Serge Lemay, Guest Editor University of Twente
Henry White, Guest Editor
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University of Utah
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the authors and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
Published: November 15, 2016 2371
DOI: 10.1021/acs.accounts.6b00515 Acc. Chem. Res. 2016, 49, 2371−2371
