title: In situ chemical probing of the electrode-electrolyte interface by ToF-SIMS.
abstract: A portable vacuum interface allowing direct probing of the electrode-electrolyte interface was developed. A classical electrochemical system consisting of a gold working electrode, platinum counter electrode, platinum reference electrode, and potassium iodide electrolyte was used to demonstrate real-time observation of the gold iodide adlayer on the electrode and chemical species as a result of redox reactions using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS, a vacuum-based surface technique) simultaneously. This microfluidic electrochemical probe provides a new way to investigate the surface region with adsorbed molecules and the region of the diffused layer with chemical speciation in liquids in situ by surface sensitive techniques.
authors.affiliation: Atmospheric Sciences and Global Climate Change Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99354, USA. xiaoying.yu@pnnl.gov.
authors.forename: Bingwen
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Xiao-Ying
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Zihua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hua
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Zhaoying
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang