School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai 200237, China.
Dalton Trans. 2019 Mar 19;48(12):3809-3814. doi: 10.1039/c8dt05141k.
Nanoparticles (NPs) play a central role in a wide range of electrochemical applications. One of the ultimate goals for nano-electrochemistry is to establish the structure-activity relationship (SAR) of NPs, so that they can be rationally designed and synthesized. However, it has remained a critical challenge until now, despite the tremendous efforts that have been made. This is largely because most ensemble characterization methods cannot resolve the significant static and dynamic disorder among the individual NPs and their respective active sites. The recently developed single NP electrochemical methods, including both collision and immobilization, opened up a radically new and effective way to uncover such heterogeneity. More importantly, it has also been increasingly recognized that coupling electrochemistry with operando optical microscopy is of great benefit to elucidate the dynamic SAR as well as the underlying reaction mechanisms. Herein, this frontier article aims to provide a timely update on the recent progress of using dark-field and Raman microscopy to probe the single NP electrochemistry in real time.
纳米粒子 (NPs) 在广泛的电化学应用中起着核心作用。纳米电化学的最终目标之一是建立 NPs 的结构-活性关系 (SAR)，以便能够对其进行合理的设计和合成。然而，尽管已经付出了巨大的努力，这仍然是一个关键的挑战。这在很大程度上是因为大多数整体特征化方法无法解决单个 NPs 及其各自活性位点之间存在的显著静态和动态无序。最近开发的单 NP 电化学方法，包括碰撞和固定化，为揭示这种异质性开辟了一条全新而有效的途径。更重要的是，人们越来越认识到，将电化学与在位光学显微镜相结合对于阐明动态 SAR 以及基础反应机制非常有益。本文旨在及时更新使用暗场和拉曼显微镜实时探测单 NP 电化学的最新进展。
