Tony Shien Ping Feng
Assistant Professor
Title: Electrochemical Fabrication of Japonica like Silver Flowers
Biography
Biography: Tony Shien Ping Feng
Abstract
We present a new electrochemical approach to convert a bulk thin Ag film into japonica-like Ag flowers by using a combination of 3-mercaptopropyl-trimethoxysilane (MPS) layer and cyclic sweeping potential (CSP). An intact bulk Ag layer is electroplated on MPS-grafted substrate, and then a CSP treatment is applied to the Ag-coated substrate in a weak alkaline electrolyte of CH3COONa, NiSO4, and Na2SO4. The flower-like Ag nanocrystals can be effectively produced via manipulation of potential waveform and scan rate of CSP. This method is readily extended to other metals or bimetallic system, such as Cu and Ag-Cu. This finding may open up a new route to effectively synthesize metal and bimetallic NCs with various shapes and versatile functionalities. In this work, the flower-like Ag NCs are chosen to demonstrate as high-sensitive electrode in the application of noninvasive/non-enzymatic electrochemical glucose biosensors. The 3D flower-like Ag NCs with high densities of stepped atoms exhibit extraordinarily enhanced electrocatalytic activity to glucose, which achieve a record low detection limit of 0.1 nM.