Imaging transient formation of diffusion layers with fluorescence-enabled electrochemical microscopy

Fluorescence-enabled electrochemical microscopy (FEEM) is demonstrated as a new technique to image transient concentration profiles of redox species generated on ultramicroelectrodes (UMEs). FEEM converts an electrical signal into an optical signal by electrically coupling a conventional redox reaction to a fluorogenic reporter reaction on a closed bipolar electrode. We describe the implementation of FEEM for diffusion layer imaging and use an array of thousands of parallel bipolar electrodes to image the diffusion layers of UMEs in two and three dimensions. This new technique provides a way to image an entire 2-dimensional lateral cross section of a dynamic diffusion layer in a single experiment. By taking several of these lateral cross sections at different axial positions in the diffusion layer, a 3-dimensional image of the diffusion layer can be built. We image the diffusion layer of a 10 μm diameter carbon fiber electrode over the course of a cyclic voltammetry experiment and compare the FEEM-generated images to concentration profiles generated from numerical simulation. We also image the diffusion layer of a two electrode array consisting of two 10 μm diameter carbon fibers over the course of a potential step experiment.