Influence of Phosphorus Doping Level and Acid Pretreatment on the Voltammetric Behavior of Phosphorus Incorporated Tetrahedral Amorphous Carbon Film Electrodes

Abstract

Phosphorus incorporated tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C:P) films are prepared by filtered cathodic vacuum arc technology with phosphine as the dopant. The influence of phosphorus doping level and acid pretreatment on the electrochemical properties of ta-C:P electrodes is investigated by cyclic voltammetry, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. Results indicate that phosphorus incorporation improves the electrical and electrochemical behaviors of the films. A moderate phosphorus atomic fraction facilitates the interfacial electron transport in context of a high content of effective phosphorus impurities. Furthermore, acid pretreatment activates the surface of the films and gives an excellent reversible feature towards ferricyanide oxidation reaction by removing the inactive oxygenated sites and exposing the active conduction channels.

Non-enzymatic hydrogen peroxide detection using gold nanoclusters-modified phosphorus incorporated tetrahedral amorphous carbon electrodes

“…A prominent H 2 O 2 oxidation peak (Peak A) was observed at 0.78 ± 0.08 V (Curve b). The response current of H 2 O 2 obtained using ta-C:P may contribute to the catalysis action of active CP sites on the ta-C:P surface [14]. Fig.…”

“…The content of phosphorus (P/(C + P)) in the ta-C:P film was calculated to be 6.8 at.% from the core level spectra of P 2p and C 1s using the sensitivity factors of the instrument [14]. The deposition process of Au was analyzed by cyclic voltammetry in a 0.1 M H 2 SO 4 solution at different scan rates.…”

“…Using a filtered cathodic vacuum arc system with 10-sccm phosphine (purity 99.9999%) as the dopant source, 80-nm ta-C:P films were deposited on p-type silicon wafers ( = 0.01-0.02 cm) [14]. Au NCs were electrodeposited on as-prepared ta-C:P surfaces in a 0.1 M H 3 BO 4 solution containing 0.5 mM HAuCl 4 (the pH of the solution was adjusted to 1.5 with dense H 2 SO 4 ) using an electrochemical workstation (CHI 660A, China) [32].…”

“…These conductive carbon films possess low double layer capacitance, a large potential window, low background current, stability in challenging environments, comparative electrocatalysis and high resistance to product adsorption and do not require a non-activation treatment of the electrode surface by polishing, heating or laser activation. With ambient temperature growth on virtually any substrate and smooth surfaces, doped ta-C or DLC films exhibit many advantages over the difficult-to-nucleate, high-temperature growth boron-doped diamond (BDD) films and "classical" carbon materials and are regarded as an appropriate material for electroanalytical applications [5,8,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”

High definition conductive carbon films from solution processing of nitrogen-containing oligomers

“…They are reliable methods benefiting from the vast number of examples, but their high costs mainly originating from the requirement of high-vacuum thus limiting their industrial applications to higher value products. In addition, the fabrication system becomes complicated and/or more hazardous when other elements such as nitrogen, boron, phosphor and metals [17][18][19][20][21][22][23] are to be introduced, which however can afford profitable properties to the film.…”