Nanodiamond thin film electrodes: Metal electro-deposition and stripping processes

The properties of a nanodiamond thin film deposit formed on titanium substrates in a microwave-plasma enhanced CVD process, are investigated for applications in electroanalysis. The nanodiamond deposit consists of intergrown nano-sized platelets of diamond with a high sp² carbon content giving it high electrical conductivity and electrochemical reactivity. Nanodiamond thin film electrodes (of approximately 2 μm thickness) are characterized by electron microscopy and electrochemical methods. First, for a reversible one electron redox system, Ru(NH₃)₆^3+/2+, nanodiamond is shown to give well-defined diffusion controlled voltammetric responses. Next, metal deposition processes are shown to proceed on nanodiamond with high reversibility and high efficiency compared to processes reported on boron-doped diamond. The nucleation of gold is shown to be facile at edge sites, which are abundant on the nanodiamond surface. For the deposition and stripping of both gold and copper, a stripping efficiency (the ratio of electro-dissolution charge to electro-deposition charge) of close to unity is detected even at low concentrations of analyte. The effect of thermal annealing in air is shown to drastically modify the electrode characteristics probably due to interfacial oxidation, loss of active sp² sites, and loss of conductivity.