Described here is that AuÀCCb onds showed the highest stability under biological conditions,w ith abundant thiols,a nd the best electrochemical performance compared to Au À Sand Au À Se bonds.The new finding was also confirmed by theorical calculations.B ased on this finding, as pecific molecule for recognition of Fe 2+ was designed and synthesized, and used to create as elective and accurate electrochemical sensor for the quantification of Fe 2+ .T he present ratiometric strategy demonstrates high spatial resolution for real-time tracking of Fe 2+ in ad ynamic range of 0.2-120 mM. Finally, amicroelectrode arraywith good biocompatibility was applied in imaging and biosensing of Fe 2+ in the different regions of live mouse brains.U sing this tool, it was discovered that the uptake of extracellular Fe 2+ into the cortex and striatum was largely mediated by cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) through the CREB-related pathway in the brain of am ouse with Alzheimersd isease.

Conventional damascene electroplating uses a combination of organic additives, namely, a suppressor, an accelerator, and a leveler, to achieve superconformal fill of interconnects. This work demonstrates an alternative mechanism that produces bottom-up cobalt deposition through a combination of pH and suppressor gradient formation within the patterned features. The fill mechanism was investigated using voltammetric and electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance measurements. The results show that local pH affects both the deposition rate and the current efficiency for cobalt deposition, which, combined with the kinetic effects of suppressor-type additives, drive a plating rate differential between the field and the feature-bottom. By appropriately selecting solution concentrations, organic additives, the waveform, and the mass transport conditions, void-free superconformal cobalt fill can be achieved in a variety of features.

Herein, a ratiometric SERS probe was created for monitoring nitric oxide (NO) by designing a novel molecule, 3,4-diaminobenzene-thiol, and immobilizing this molecule onto trisoctahedral gold nanostructures with superior SERS capability. The established probe possessed good selectivity and biocompatibility, high sensitivity and accuracy, thus enabling imaging and biosensing of NO in live cells.

The impact of leveler molecular weight and concentration on bottom-up fill rate, leveling activity, electrolyte polarization, and copper properties of films formed during damascene copper electroplating has been studied. A model leveler, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), at molecular weights ranging from 3,500 to 1,300,000 and at concentrations from 1 to 20 mg/L was found to be effective in reducing excessive plated thickness over superfilling features, while resulting in little loss of bottom-up fill performance. Intermediate PVP molecular weights were most effective in reducing overplating, while the higher molecular weights enhanced fill performance. This behavior is explained in terms of leveler diffusion into features as a function of molecular weight, and leveler impact on electrolyte polarization. Incorporation of sulfur, carbon, and chloride in the plated films increased with increasing PVP concentration and molecular weight. This suggests leveling is accomplished by removal of adsorbed accelerator from the from the film surface during plating by co-deposition with leveler.

Ni–SiCp composite coatings were synthesised by pulse electrocodeposition with different duty cycles. The grain size and the SiC particle content were found to increase with increasing duty cycle, and a maximum microhardness value was obtained at a duty cycle of 50%. Based on the results of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, an equivalent circuit model was used to estimate the charge transfer current of the electrodeposition process at different duty cycles. The peak charge transfer current was found to decrease with increasing duty cycle. An analytical volume fraction equation was also applied to predict the content of embedded SiC particles in the composite coatings. The trend of the predictions was in consistent with the experimental results.