In Situ Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy in Ionic Liquids: Prospects and Challenges
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Frank Endres
In this paper devoted to Professor Dieter Kolb's 65th birthday the prospects and challenges of ionic liquids for fundamental investigations at the interface electrode/electrolyte are discussed. Ionic liquids consist solely of mainly organic cations and anions and they have wide electrochemical windows of up to 6 V (approximately ± 3 V vs. NHE) combined with wide thermal windows of up to 300ºC and extremely low vapour pressures between 10-11 and 10-10 mbar around room temperature. Thus, thermodynamically they give access to many elements and compounds at variable temperature which due to their reactivity cannot be electrodeposited in aqueous solutions. Apart from a discussion of electrochemical windows examples to be covered in this paper are the local probe deposition of silicon, aluminium and tantalum on Au(111). There is an incredibly high number of possible liquids (between 1012 and 1018 liquids, binary and ternary mixtures have been predicted) but also one major challenge for fundamental physicochemical studies, especially with the in situ STM: purity. It is tough to purify ionic liquids as hitherto they can neither be distilled with considerable rates without decomposition nor recrystallized nor sublimed. It will be shortly discussed that even apparently ultrapure ionic liquids can contain low amounts of inorganic impurities leading to inexpected behaviour on the single crystalline surface of Au(111). Due to their importance this paper focuses soleley on the third generation of ionic liquids, i.e. air and water stable ones.
© Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag
Articles in the same Issue
- Preface: Dieter Kolb zum 65. Geburtstag
- Precursor Adsorption of SbBr3 on Au(111) and Au(100) for Antimony Underpotential Deposition in a BMIBF4 Ionic Liquid – A Comparison with SbCl3
- Electroreduction of Nitrate at Copper Electrodes and Copper-PANI Composite Layers
- Potential Program Invariant Representation of Diffusion–Adsorption Related Voltammograms
- A Way for Determining the Effective Three Phase Boundary Width of Solid State Electrochemical Reactions from the Primary and Secondary Current Distribution at Microelectrodes
- Carbon Nanotubes and Electrochemistry
- Pd3Fe and Pt Monolayer-Modified Pd3Fe Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction
- Electrochemical Nucleation and Growth Kinetics of Nanostructured Gold on Rotating Disc and Stationary Electrodes
- Theoretical Trends in Particle Size Effects for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction
- Metal Deposition by Inducing a Microgalvanic Cell with the Scanning Electrochemical Microscope (SECM)
- Formation of a Molecular Glue Based on the Electrochemical Reduction of 4-Hydroxyphenyldiazonium for the Attachment of Thin Sol–Gel Film on Glassy Carbon
- Confined Spatio-Temporal Chaos During Metal Electrodissolution: Simulations
- Comparative Study of Thymine Adsorption on Cu- and Ag-Adlayers on Au(111) Electrodes
- The Adsorption and Growth of Copper on As-Terminated GaAs(001): Physical Vapour versus Electrochemical Deposition
- Monte Carlo Simulation of Kinetically Limited Electrodeposition on a Surface with Metal Seed Clusters
- Normalized Differential Reflectance Spectroscopy at Polycrystalline Platinum Electrodes in Aqueous Acidic Electrolytes: Quantitative Aspects
- Hydrogen Adsorption on Activated Platinum Electrodes – An Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy Study
- Voltammetry and Electrocatalysis of Achromobacter Xylosoxidans Copper Nitrite Reductase on Functionalized Au(111)-Electrode Surfaces
- Electrocatalytic Trends on IB Group Metals: The Oxygen Reduction Reaction
- DFT Studies on the Nature of Coadsorbates on SO42-/Au(111)
- In Situ Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy in Ionic Liquids: Prospects and Challenges
Articles in the same Issue
- Preface: Dieter Kolb zum 65. Geburtstag
- Precursor Adsorption of SbBr3 on Au(111) and Au(100) for Antimony Underpotential Deposition in a BMIBF4 Ionic Liquid – A Comparison with SbCl3
- Electroreduction of Nitrate at Copper Electrodes and Copper-PANI Composite Layers
- Potential Program Invariant Representation of Diffusion–Adsorption Related Voltammograms
- A Way for Determining the Effective Three Phase Boundary Width of Solid State Electrochemical Reactions from the Primary and Secondary Current Distribution at Microelectrodes
- Carbon Nanotubes and Electrochemistry
- Pd3Fe and Pt Monolayer-Modified Pd3Fe Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction
- Electrochemical Nucleation and Growth Kinetics of Nanostructured Gold on Rotating Disc and Stationary Electrodes
- Theoretical Trends in Particle Size Effects for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction
- Metal Deposition by Inducing a Microgalvanic Cell with the Scanning Electrochemical Microscope (SECM)
- Formation of a Molecular Glue Based on the Electrochemical Reduction of 4-Hydroxyphenyldiazonium for the Attachment of Thin Sol–Gel Film on Glassy Carbon
- Confined Spatio-Temporal Chaos During Metal Electrodissolution: Simulations
- Comparative Study of Thymine Adsorption on Cu- and Ag-Adlayers on Au(111) Electrodes
- The Adsorption and Growth of Copper on As-Terminated GaAs(001): Physical Vapour versus Electrochemical Deposition
- Monte Carlo Simulation of Kinetically Limited Electrodeposition on a Surface with Metal Seed Clusters
- Normalized Differential Reflectance Spectroscopy at Polycrystalline Platinum Electrodes in Aqueous Acidic Electrolytes: Quantitative Aspects
- Hydrogen Adsorption on Activated Platinum Electrodes – An Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy Study
- Voltammetry and Electrocatalysis of Achromobacter Xylosoxidans Copper Nitrite Reductase on Functionalized Au(111)-Electrode Surfaces
- Electrocatalytic Trends on IB Group Metals: The Oxygen Reduction Reaction
- DFT Studies on the Nature of Coadsorbates on SO42-/Au(111)
- In Situ Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy in Ionic Liquids: Prospects and Challenges
