Size-Dependent Voltammetry at Single Silver Nanoelectrodes.

Understanding the kinetics and thermodynamics of electro-oxidation of metal nanostructures at single particles/electrodes level is extremely important. In this work, single silver nanoelectrodes with the radii down to 10 nm were fabricated by a laser-assisted pulling technique. Size-dependent voltammetry could be observed using prepared single silver nanoelectrodes with different radii, which involved a fast electron-transfer kinetics process through measuring electron-transfer rate and a favorable thermodynamics process from the negative potential shift with the decrease of radii. Our method provided a meaningful attempt to investigate electron-transfer kinetics and thermodynamics at single nanoparticles/nanoelectrodes level.