The microscopy and spectroscopy lab of the liquid/solid interface has 2 experimental systems for combined experiments. The first set-up is fully devoted to high-resolution microscopy [electrochemical atomic force microscopy (EC-AFM, electrochemical scanning probe microscopy (EC-STM), scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM)]. With these apparatus, images of the electrode surface immersed inside a liquid (typically an electrolyte) can be acquired with atomic or molecular resolution. The above-mentioned scanning probes can work when they are fully immersed inside an electrochemical cell. The latter can be driven by a (bi)potentiostat that can change the applied potential to the electrode while acquiring the flowing faradaic current through the sample. The EC-microscopy can be synchronized with the electrochemical measurements to correlate charge exchanges with morphological or structural changes of the electrode surface. The second set-up couples an EC-AFM together with a Raman spectroscopy. It is thus possible a complete sample characterization of the working electrode inside the EC cell. In fact, while a potentiostat can change the applied potential to the electrode to induce electron transfer, ion adsorption or desorption, the AFM acquires the surface topography in parallel with the chemical analysis of the Raman apparatus. The chemical maps are thus immediately correlate to the sample topography. Some lectures, titled “Interfacial Electrochemistry: structure and microscopic analysis of electrified interfaces”, for the PhD course in Physics or Material Science match the research activity of the SoLINano-Sigma lab.

Lab news

Together with Prof. Klaus Wandelt, the encyclopedic work was completed: https://shop.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-solid-liquid-interfaces/wandelt/978-0-323-85669-0.

References

• Filoni C, Wandelt K, Marfori L, Leone M, Duò L, Ciccacci F, Bussetti G 2023 App. Surf. Sci. 611 155542 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2022.155542)
• Penconi M, Yivlialin R, Bussetti G, Duò L, Bossi A and Orbelli Biroli A 2020 App. Surf. Sci. 507 145055 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2019.145055)
• Yivlialin R, Brambilla L, Accogli A, Gibertini E, Tommasini M, Goletti C, Leone M, Duò L, Magagnin L, Castiglioni C and Bussetti G 2020 Appl. Surf. Sci. 504 144440 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2019.144440)
• Bussetti G, Yivlialin R, Alliata D, Li Bassi A, Castiglioni C, Tommasini M, Casari CS, Passoni M, Biagioni P, Ciccacci F and Duò L 2016 J. Phys. Chem. C 120 6088 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b00407)