Composite Nanostructured Material Fabrication By Electrochemical Scanning Probe Microscopy

Progress has been made in characterizing the parameters needed to achieve selective electrodeposition onto a nanostructured surface and in techniques and procedures needed to create a nanoheterostructure, a class of composite solid-state/solid-state and biomolecular/solid- state materials with nanometer-scale structure. A newly created device called a minicell, a minielectrochemical cell, proved to be very successful in terms of dealing with the small substrate size(usually less than 20 mm squared) on which our nanostructures are formed. We found that a properly designed electrochemical cell for these experiments should have the working- reference and working- counter electrode distances the same. It should also use a counter electrode with a large surface area exposed to the electrolyte, and one which is located over the whole working electrode, so that deposition occurs smoothly and uniformly across the entire substrate surface.