Landing and Catalytic Characterization of Individual Nanoparticles on Electrode Surfaces

Steven E. F. Kleijn †, Stanley C. S. Lai ‡, Thomas S. Miller ‡, Alexei I. Yanson †, Marc T. M. Koper *†, andPatrick R. Unwin *‡

^† Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9502, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands

^‡ Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom

J. Am. Chem. Soc., Article ASAP

DOI: 10.1021/ja309220m

Publication Date (Web): October 26, 2012

Copyright © 2012 American Chemical Society

We demonstrate a novel and versatile pipet-based approach to study the landing of individual nanoparticles (NPs) on various electrode materials without any need for encapsulation or fabrication of complex substrate electrode structures, providing great flexibility with respect to electrode materials. Because of the small electrode area defined by the pipet dimensions, the background current is low, allowing for the detection of minute current signals with good time resolution. This approach was used to characterize the potential-dependent activity of Au NPs and to measure the catalytic activity of a single NP on a TEM grid, combining electrochemical and physical characterization at the single NP level for the first time. Such measurements open up the possibility of studying the relation between the size, structure and activity of catalyst particles unambiguously.