High throughput SECM imaging: Development and applications

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Gunther Wittstock
• Subject Area: Physical Chemistry of Solids and Surfaces, Material Characterisation
• Term: from 2008 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 84907820

The aim of this combined grant application between the Laboratory of Analytical and Physical Electrochemistry (LEPA) from EPFL and the laboratory Condensed Matter Interfaces and Electrochemistry from Oldenburg University (UOL) is to combine the device microfabrication expertise of the former and the instrument design and data processing of the latter to develop new concepts in Scanning ElectroChemical Microscopy (SECM) with the specific aim to image large area that cannot performed with the existing technology. The gist of this proposal is the design, fabrication and tests of micro-machined soft Tipp arrays for the parallel recording of a 32-line image per scan. This novel methodology will be used in particular to image silver-stained 2D gels used in protein separation, and/or their respective blots. Similarly, it will also be used to develop further the fingerprint imaging technology recently developed in collaboration with the Forensic Science Laboratory at the University of Lausanne. We shall apply it also to study the surface modification by bromine generation, and to test technical coatings for defects. In a second stage, we would like to develop a new soft-tip concept with built-in microchannels so as to image dry substrates, the electrolyte being delivered at the tip like the ink at the tip of a fountain pen. This will also be used not only to image the surface reactivity of dry samples such as corroded metals but also to etch selectively surfaces with the aim to pattern them or to write on dry surfaces by electrodeposition or electrografting.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Switzerland
• Participating Person: Professor Hubert Girault