Controlling, modifying and studying the properties of an interface are often the key to many technological problems, whether related to energy storage or production, analytical sciences, electrocatalysis... While there are many methods available today for functionalizing or characterizing the surface of a material, electrochemistry, by its interfacial nature, plays a major role in this work. The last ten years have seen the simultaneous development of electro-etching-based approaches for modifying a material's surface, and localized electrochemical techniques such as scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) for characterizing these modifications.
In this talk, these analytical approaches and their principles are presented, based on examples that notably concern the functionalization of carbon interfaces by electro-grafting, while specifying the advantages and difficulties compared with other conventional techniques. Electro-grafting reactions generally involve the electrochemical production of a highly reactive intermediate from an electro-active precursor that will react with the surface. The advantages are both robust attachment to a wide range of materials, notably carbon, and the simplicity of preparing inexpensive precursors such as aryldiazonium salts. Electrochemical microscopy provides a true chemical and dynamic view of the modified surface, as the interface is seen through the interaction between a redox molecule produced at a microelectrode and the sample to be studied.
