Preparation and characterization of vertically columnar boron doped diamond array electrode

A vertically columnar boron doped diamond (BDD) array electrode was fabricated by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition. Observed by scanning electron microscopy, the fabricated samples were structured with aligned columns whose diameter and height was 8 mu m and 12 mu m, respectively, and the minimum interval of neighboring columns was 2 mu m. The results of electrochemistry measurement showed that the columnar BDD array electrode possessed high oxygen evolution potential and low background current. Besides that, comparing with flat BDD electrode, the columnar BDD array electrode showed higher electrochemical activity (due to its inner active surface being up to 4.25 cm(2)), lower impedance of electric double layer, and especially enhanced electrical response signal (2.12 mu A/mu M, 4 times of flat BDD in glucose detection as a sample). These excellent performances may open the door for the BDD materials to be applied in wide areas including electrochemical detection, electrochemistry degradation, electrochemical synthesis, and so on. (C) 2014 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.