User:Cassidy B. Hart/Notebook/CHEM-471: Gold & Silver Nanoparticles/2017/02/08

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Purpose To determine if coating the glassy carbon electrode with nanofibers blocked electron transfer. Protocol CH Instruments Electrochemical Analyzer was used. 5 mM hexaammineruthenium(III) chloride and 1M KCl solution was used in electrochemical cell. The glassy carbon electrode was cleaned with 0.3 and then 0.05 alumina slurry and then sonicated. The reference electrode, the platinum wire, and the GCE were attached to the instrument. The parameters were set at: Initial: 0.2 High: 0.2 Low: -0.4 Initial Scan: Negative Scan Rate: 0.05 Segments: 4 Sensitivity 1x10^(-5) Sample Interval: 0.001 Then the instrument was ran. This same procedure was repeated twice before being repeated a third time with the addition of 6uL of nanofibers which had been dropped onto the GCE and allowed to dry. The nanofibers had been centrifued at 1300rpm for 1 minute. 6uL nanofibers take about 15 minutes to dry 10uL nanofibers take about 25 minutes to dry Data 1 M KCl sonicated Test 1 Figure 1 dV=.068V dC=5.11*10-5A 1 M KCl sonicated Test 2 Figure 2 dV=.066V dC=1.00*10-4A 1 M KCl sonicated Test 3 Figure 3 dV=.066V dC=1.00*10-4A Nanofibers 6 uLTest 1 Figure 4 dV=.075V dC=9.99*10-5A Nanofibers 6uL Test 2 Figure 5 dV=.094V dC=7.21*10-5A Nanofibers 6uL Test 3 Figure 6 dV=.079V dC=9.62*10-5A Nanofibers 10uL Test 1 Figure 7 dV=.092V dC=7.45*10-5A Nanofibers 10μL Test 2 Figure 8 dV=.086V dC=7.99*10-5A Results The sonication decreased the separation between peaks and was added to the permanent protocol. The nanofibers did not completely block electron transfer. They did cause the separation between peaks to increase and also decreased the magnitude of current measured. Notes Hannah Harvey