Nanoelectrode ensembles using carbon nanopipettes

Abstract

We demonstrate a simple approach for fabricating nanoelectrode ensembles (NEEs) for nanostructures exhibiting conical morphologies. The fabrication concept utilizes the tapered geometries of carbon nanopipettes (CNPs) and entails one simple, dip-coating step with an insulating polymer to engineer their spatial distribution. After dip-coating, the CNPs in the NEE are separated by several micrometers. Uncoated CNP arrays exhibit peak-shaped behavior in cyclic voltammetry, whereas polymer-coated NEEs yield steady-state, sigmoidal voltammograms over a wide range of scan rates. As-synthesized CNPs could also be employed as templates for synthesizing conical morphologies of other materials to be incorporated into NEEs. © 2006 The Electrochemical Society.