An In Situ AFM Study of Electrochemical Bismuth Film Deposition on a Glassy Carbon Substrate Electrode Using a Low Concentration of Bismuth Ions

Abstract

The bismuth film electrode (BiFE), which was first introduced in 2000 for electrochemical stripping analysis, is now widely used in electroanalytical laboratories worldwide. Numerous scientists have been inspired to conduct more research and broaden the understanding of the BiFE’s favourable electroanalytical performance, which is comparable to, or in some cases even exceeds, that of its mercury counterparts for the detection of heavy metal ions and selected organic compounds. Various types of bismuth-based paste electrodes, as well as in-situ and ex-situ prepared BiFE, have been presented in combination with potentiometric and voltammetric (stripping) protocols. Whereas the ex situ prepared electrodes must be moved from the modification solution to the measuring cell device and often need to display improved stability for several measurements, the ex-situ-prepared bismuth films require acceptable physical and chemical stability. In this study, we provided insight into the commencement of the formation of the bismuth film on a glassy carbon substrate electrode (GCE) when using a very low concentration of bismuth ions. We used our home-constructed AFM cell to fit in commercial working GCE, a platinum wire as the counter electrode, and an Ag/AgCl/NaCl (3 M) as the reference electrode.

Keywords

• AFM
• electrochemical deposition
• in situ AFM
• BiFE
• nanodeposits