Conspectus
Diamond electrodes stepped onto
the stage in the early 1990s for
electroanalytical applications. They possess the features of long-term
chemical inertness, wide potential windows, low and stable background
currents, high microstructural stability at different potentials and
in different media, varied activity toward different electroactive
species, reliable electrochemical response of redox systems without
conventional pretreatment, high resistance to surface fouling in most
cases, and possibility of forming composites with different components
such as other carbon materials, carbides, and oxidizes. Most diamond
electrodes are prepared in microcrystalline or nanocrystalline form
using chemical vapor deposition techniques. Starting from diamond
films and diamond composites, numerous nanostructured diamond electrodes
have also been produced. The features of diamond electrodes are therefore
heavily dependent on the growth conditions and post-treatment procures
that are applied on diamond electrodes such as introduced dopant(s),
surface termination(s), surface functional group(s), added components,
and final structure(s). Numerous applications of diamond electrodes
have been explored in the fields of electrochemical sensing, electrosynthesis,
electrocatalysis, electrochemical energy storage and conversion, devices,
and environmental degradation.
This Account summarizes our strategies
to design different diamond
electrodes, including diamond films, diamond composites, as well as
their nanostructures. With respect to diamond films, the modulation
of their dopant(s) and surface termination(s) as well as the attachment
of functional modifier(s) onto their surface are discussed. Electrochemical
hydrogenation and oxygenation of diamond electrodes are detailed at
an atomic scale. As the examples of designing diamond electrodes at
a molecular scale, photochemical and electrochemical attachment of
modifier(s) onto diamond electrodes are shown. Moreover, electrochemical
grafting of diazonium salts is proposed as a new technique to identify
hydrogenated, hydroxylated, and oxygenated terminations of diamond
electrodes. The introduction of additional component(s) into a diamond
film to form diamond composites is then overviewed, where a hydrogen-induced
selective growth model is proposed to elucidate the preparation of
diamond/β-SiC composites. Subsequently, the production of various
diamond nanostructures from diamond films and composites by means
of top-down, bottom-up, and template-free approaches is shown. Electrochemical
application examples of diamond electrodes are overviewed, covering
direct electrochemistry of natural Cytochrome c on a hydroxylated
diamond surface, sensitive electrochemical DNA biosensing on tip-functionalized
diamond nanowires, and construction of high-performance supercapacitors
using diamond electrodes and redox electrolytes. Our diamond supercapacitors,
also named battery-like diamond supercapacitors or diamond supercabatteries,
are highlighted since they combine the features of supercapac...