Probing the nucleation, growth, and evolution of hydrogen nanobubbles at single catalytic sites
By Perera, Rukshan T.; Arcadia, Christopher E.; Rosenstein, Jacob K.
Published in Electrochimica Acta
2018
Abstract
We present measurements of the nucleation, growth and evolution of single hydrogen nanobubbles containing zeptomoles of molecular hydrogen and likely originating from a single catalytic site. These bubbles are measured using nanoscale platinum and gold meniscus-contacted electrodes, whose picoliter volumes facilitate rapid supersaturation and evolution of bubbles. Observed periodic current transients were utilized to understand the nucleation, growth, coalescence, and evolution of single nanobubbles at different overpotentials and pHs. This provides a novel platform to understand factors governing bubble nucleation and evolution. These measurements offer exciting possibilities to connect experiments with computational models in important energy applications.