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In situ atomic force microscopy: the case study of graphite immersed in aqueous NaOH electrolyte

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Abstract

In situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) measures, with the scanner head immersed inside a liquid (namely an electrolyte), are—generally speaking—not easy to be acquired in real time, i.e., during electrochemical processes, the immersion of a massive and wide system (with respect to the electrochemical cell mean radius) can significantly perturb the electrolyte and the I/V profile of the electrochemical characterization (CV). Despite this fact, the information that can be obtained from an electrode morphological inspection is very precious, and the coupling between an AFM and an electrochemical cell is in any case successful. In this work, we discuss the surface morphological evolution of a graphite electrode when immersed inside an aqueous NaOH electrolyte. 1.0 M sodium hydroxide added inside electrochemical baths was shown to promote the intercalation of ions between the stratified graphite structure or graphene layers. Possible consequences of diluted NaOH electrolyte on the quality of the graphite basal plane have been never considered in detail yet. By means of an in situ AFM, we show the effects of CVs on the surface morphology of the graphite basal plane. Our result shows that a 1.0 M NaOH solution, generally used for promoting intercalation, changes the electrode surface quality as a consequence of a partial carbon corrosion.

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Acknowledgements

This work was realized at the Solid–Liquid Interface and Nanomicroscopy (SoLINano) lab, which is an inter-Departmental laboratory financed and supported by the Politecnico di Milano. Authors also thank the Regione Lombardia—Fondazione Cariplo joint project ‘SmartMatLab Centre’ where vacuum-deposited thin films were prepared; the Project “I-ZEB Verso Edifici Intelligenti a Energia Zero per la crescita della città intelligente” in the framework of ‘Accordo Quadro tra Regione Lombardia e Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche’ and the Project PRIN2017 “3D-FARE: Functional 3D Architectures for Electrochemiluminescence applications—Prot.\(\hbox {n}^\circ \) 2017FJCPEX.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Politecnico di Milano, p.za L. da Vinci 32, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Gianlorenzo Bussetti, Lamberto Duò & Franco Ciccacci

  2. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 4, 20126, Milan, Italy

    Marcello Campione

  3. Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie Chimiche “G. Natta” of the CNR (CNR-SCITEC) and SmartMatLab Center, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via Golgi 19, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Alberto Bossi & Alessio Orbelli Biroli

  4. Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Roma “Tor Vergata”, v. della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133, Rome, Italy

    Claudio Goletti

Authors
  1. Gianlorenzo Bussetti
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  2. Marcello Campione
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  3. Alberto Bossi
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  4. Claudio Goletti
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  5. Lamberto Duò
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  6. Franco Ciccacci
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  7. Alessio Orbelli Biroli
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Correspondence to Alberto Bossi.

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Bussetti, G., Campione, M., Bossi, A. et al. In situ atomic force microscopy: the case study of graphite immersed in aqueous NaOH electrolyte. Eur. Phys. J. Plus 135, 329 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-020-00333-8

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