Electrochemical reactions that produce dissolved gas molecules are ubiquitous in energy-related technologies, e.g., water electrolysis, photoelectrochemistry, chlorine production, electrocatalytic oxidation of organic molecules, corrosion, and often lead to the formation of gaseous bubbles. In this presentation, we describe electrochemical investigations of individual gas nanobubbles of O2, H2, N2, and CO2 in the 10–100 nm size regime. We report new electrochemical methods that allow quantitative measurements of the rate of nucleation, the surface tension of nanobubbles, the critical size and number of molecules associated with gas-phase nucleation, and electrochemical reaction rates at the three-phase metal/electrolyte/gas interface. Our investigations highlight the enormous advantage of studying an individual nanobubble in quantifying complex physicochemical phenomena associated with gas-evolving reactions.

Electrochemistry at three-phase boundaries

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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