Abstract
Electrochemical reactions and ionic transport underpin the operation of a broad range of devices and applications, from energy storage and conversion to information technologies, as well as biochemical processes, artificial muscles, and soft actuators. Understanding the mechanisms governing function of these applications requires probing local electrochemical phenomena on the relevant time and length scales. Here, we discuss the challenges and opportunities for extending electrochemical characterization probes to the nanometer and ultimately atomic scales, including challenges in down-scaling classical methods, the emergence of novel probes enabled by nanotechnology and based on emergent physics and chemistry of nanoscale systems, and the integration of local data into macroscopic models. Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) methods based on strain detection, potential detection, and hysteretic current measurements are discussed. We further compare SPM to electron beam probes and discuss the applicability of electron beam methods to probe local electrochemical behavior on the mesoscopic and atomic levels. Similar to a SPM tip, the electron beam can be used both for observing behavior and as an active electrode to induce reactions. We briefly discuss new challenges and opportunities for conducting fundamental scientific studies, matter patterning, and atomic manipulation arising in this context.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 9735-9780 |
| Number of pages | 46 |
| Journal | ACS Nano |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 24 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2019 American Chemical Society.
Funding
The writing of this review was supported (S.V.K., O.D., N.B., S.N., W.Y.T., R.V., D.L., M.Z.) by the US Department of Energy Basic Energy Sciences and was performed at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility. M.T.M. acknowledges partial support from the National Science Foundation under award no. DMR-1652471 and from an Early Career Faculty grant from NASA’s Space Technology Research Grants Program. E.S. acknowledges support under the Cooperative Research Agreement between the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, award no. 70NANB14H209, through the University of Maryland. M.A. acknowledges support from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. S.V.K. gratefully acknowledges invitation from H. Tuller and J. Rupp (MIT) to deliver a lecture at the MIT workshop on Frontiers in Electrochemistry (November 2017) which served as an inspiration for this review. The authors express their deep gratitude to Dr. Karren More for careful reading and extensive commenting on this manuscript. The writing of this review was supported (S.V.K., O.D., N.B., S.N., W.Y.T., R.V., D.L., M.Z.) by the US Department of Energy Basic Energy Sciences and was performed at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility. M.T.M. acknowledges partial support from the National Science Foundation under award no. DMR-1652471 and from an Early Career Faculty grant from NASA's Space Technology Research Grants Program. E.S. acknowledges support under the Cooperative Research Agreement between the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, award no. 70NANB14H209, through the University of Maryland. M.A. acknowledges support from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. S.V.K. gratefully acknowledges invitation from H. Tuller and J. Rupp (MIT) to deliver a lecture at the MIT workshop on Frontiers in Electrochemistry (November 2017) which served as an inspiration for this review. The authors express their deep gratitude to Dr. Karren More for careful reading and extensive commenting on this manuscript.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences | |
| Cooperative | |
| E.S. | |
| M.A. | |
| N.B. | |
| NASA's Space Technology Research Grants Program | |
| O.D. | |
| R.V. | |
| S.N. | |
| U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science | |
| U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility | |
| National Science Foundation | 1652471, DMR-1652471 |
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration | |
| Basic Energy Sciences | |
| University of Tennessee | MIT |
| Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology | 70NANB14H209 |
| University of Maryland |
Keywords
- Kelvin probe force microscopy
- atomic force microscopy
- atomic manipulation
- deep convolutional neural network
- density functional theory
- electrochemical strain microscopy
- electrochemistry
- scanning transmission electron microscopy
- scanning tunneling microscopy