Nitrogen-doped diamond-like carbon as optically transparent electrode for infrared attenuated total reflection spectroelectrochemistry

Abstract

This contribution describes the development of nitrogen-doped diamond-like carbon (N-DLC) thin films for multi-reflection mid-infrared (MIR) attenuated total reflectance (IR-ATR) spectroelectrochemistry. N-DLC coatings were deposited using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) involving the ablation of a high purity graphite target. The DLC matrix was further modified by ablating the target in the presence of nitrogen gas. This technique offers the advantage of depositing thin films at room temperature, thereby enabling coating of temperature-sensitive substrates including e.g., MIR waveguides. The resulting films were analyzed with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and determined to be composed of carbon, nitrogen, and adventitious oxygen. Raman spectroscopic studies indicate that the addition of nitrogen induces further clustering and ordering of the sp(2)-hybridized carbon phase. The electrochemical activity of PLD fabricated N-DLC films was verified using the Ru(NH(3))(3+/2+) redox couple, and was determined to be comparable with that of other carbon-based electrodes. In situ spectroelectrochemical studies involving N-DLC coated zinc selenide (ZnSe) MIR waveguides provided evidence concerning the oxidation of N-DLC at anodic potentials in 1 M HClO(4) solutions. Finally, the electropolymerization of polyaniline (PAni) was performed at N-DLC-modified waveguide surfaces, which enabled spectroscopic monitoring of the electropolymerization, as well as in situ studying the structural conversion of PAni at different potentials.

Metal Organic Frameworks Derived Fe-N-C Nanostructures as High-Performance Electrodes for Sodium Ion Batteries and Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) Shielding

“…Figure 3d shows the typical XRD patterns of graphene oxide, iron decorated graphene, and G-Fe@NCNT composites. This is also reflected in the FTIR spectra of MDCNT@rGO exhibited as Figure S2 in supplementary file, which shows prominent peaks at 598, 1072, 1384, and 1637 cm −1 corresponding to Fe-C-N [32], C-N [33], physic-adsorbed nitrogen onto carbon [34] and C=N [35], respectively. The diffraction patterns of graphene oxide show a peak at 2θ of ~10 typical of graphene oxide synthesized by Hummer's method while in the case of MDCNT@rGO, in addition, the carbon peak at ~24, very sharp peaks related to iron moieties at 2θ values of 33.…”

Spectroelectrochemistry, the future of visualizing electrode processes by hyphenating electrochemistry with spectroscopic techniques

“…A large number of applications regarding ATR-IR-SEC are reported in literature. Some examples are the study of metalloproteins, 71,76 the study of CO 2 reduction without 74 and with the combination of SEIRAS, 78 the reduction of graphene oxide, 79,80 technique development [81][82][83] and practical applications such as observing lubricant degradation. 70 2.2.4 IR-SEC microscopy.…”

Spatial Control of Neuronal Adhesion on Diamond-Like Carbon

“…Nitrogen doping of DLC has been reported to both increase the adhesion of the DLC film to silicon substrates (Bootkul et al, 2014) and improve the haemocompatibility of PTFE-based implants (Srinivasan et al, 2012). Additionally, nitrogen-doped DLC films have been used for producing optical transparent electrodes (Menegazzo et al, 2011). To improve the properties of DLC as an implant material doping with F, N, Si and metals has been suggested (as summarised in Ref (Grill, 2003)).…”