The book gives an overview on the current development status of synthetic diamond films and their applications. Its initial part is devoted to discuss the different types of conductive diamond electrodes that have been synthesized, their preparation methods, and their chemical properties and characterization. The electrochemical properties of diamond films in different scientific areas, with special attention in electroanalysis, are further described. Different strategies to modify these electrodes are also discussed as important technologies with ability to change their electrochemical characteristics for a more specific electroanalytical use. The second part of the book deals with practical applications of diamond electrodes to the industry, organic electrosynthesis, electrochemical energy technology, and biotechnology. Special emphasis is made on the properties of these materials for the production of strong oxidizing species allowing the fast mineralization of organics and their use for water disinfection and decontamination. Recent biotechnological development on biosensors, microelectrodes, and nanostructured electrodes, as well as on neurochemistry, is also presented. The book will be written by a large number of internationally recognized experts and comprises 24 chapters describing the characteristics and theoretical fundaments of the different electrochemical uses and applications of synthetic diamond films.

The topic of this thesis is the electrochemical characterization of oxygen-terminated single-crystal- and nanocrystalline diamond electrodes. Diamond is a very attractive material for bio- and electrochemical applications due to its exceptional stability, its biocompatibility, and its electrochemical properties like wide potential window of water dissociation and low background current. Therefore, diamond electrodes can operate even in harsh environments and under strongly oxidizing conditions, where electrochemical devices based on silicon or metals are corroded. Such applications can be e.g. pH sensing in strong acids and bases or the detection of organic molecules. However, the electrochemical characterisitcs of oxygen-terminated diamond electrodes are dependent on the surface oxidation treatment. This issue was investigated within this thesis using electrochemical measurement techniques like cyclic voltammetry or electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The results were be correlated with the analysis of X-ray photoemission (XPS) measurements. The XPS measurements showed that different oxidation treatments induced different carbon-oxygen surface groups on the diamond surface. Besides, plasma oxidation treatments could induce a significant amount of non-diamond phases in the surface-near region. The electrochemcial measurements showed typical behaviour of oxygen-terminated diamond electrodes like a potential window of 3.0 - 3.5 V and low background currents within this window both for single-crystal and nanocrystalline diamond. However, the adsorption characterisitcs in cyclic voltammetry and the value of the electronic surface barrier in contact to the electrolyte were dependent on the chose of the oxidation treatment. The electronic surface barrier ranged from approx. 1.0 eV to 1.8 eV depending on the carbon-oxygen bonds and the amount of sp2-like defects. In addition, a severe plasma treatment including argon bombardement induced a non-diamond layer of several monolayers on the electrode surface. This layer could be removed by annealing in hydrogen plasma at approx. 700 °C, as shown by XPS and electrochemical measurements. Within this thesis, possible applications of diamond were introduced: It was shown that diamond electrodes can be used for the detection of ethanol at high anodic conditions. Besides, a promising electrode concept could be the fabrication of microelectrode arrays for high signal-to-noise ratios. Finally, this work gives also an overview about the electrochemical characterisitcs of gallium nitride and indium nitride electrodes. Such III-nitride electrodes are also considered to be relative inert and therefore promising for electrochemical applications. However, it was shown that these materials are not fully stable under high anodic potentials. This shows that diamond is indeed the best electrode material for the operation under extreme conditions.

High surface area gold electrodes are very good substrates for biosensors, catalysis and drug delivery. Their performance is characterized by good sensitivity, low detection limit and high signal. As a result, extensive research is being carried out in this field using different approaches of fabrication to generate high surface area porous electrodes of different morphology, pore size and structure. The morphology of the electrodes can be changed based on whether the approach involves a template or not, types of metal deposition, method and time of dealloying etc. The deposition of metal can be carried out using various approaches such as electroless deposition, electrochemical deposition, combination of electroless and electrochemical deposition, pulsed laser deposition, laser deposition etc. These electrodes can then be used in electrochemical measurements and their performance compared with an unmodified flat gold electrode. We used a template based approach, combined with electrochemical deposition, to fabricate macroporous, macro-nanoporous and nanoporous gold electrodes. To generate nanopores, in case of macro-nanoporous and nanoporous gold electrodes, we used gold-silver alloy electrochemical deposition method, followed by chemical dealloying. The morphology of electrodes was later observed under HITACHI Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and their elemental composition studied using HITACHI Energy Dispersion Spectroscopy (EDS). The electrodes were used in electrochemical measurements and their voltammetric data was compared. These measurements involved the determination of surface area, faradaic current using redox molecules with fast and slow electron transfer and charging current in KCl. Surface adsorption of dopamine was studied and detection of dopamine in the presence of ascorbic acid was carried out.

This edited book is devoted to different electrochemical aspects of nano materials. This comprehensive reference text is basically divided in 3 parts: electrochemical synthesis routes for nanosized materials, electrochemical properties of nano materials and electrochemical characterization methods for nanostructures. The Handbook is a reference work to chemists and materials scientists interested in the nano aspects of electrochemistry. The chapters are written by a number of international experts in the field and the content will assist members of both electrochemical and materials communities to keep abreast of developments in the field.