Scanning electrochemical microscopy. 46. Shielding effects on reversible and quasireversible reactions

An approximate theory for the feedback mode of the scanning electrochemical microscope (SECM) is developed to interpret the effects of substrate shielding on an ultramicroelectrode tip during a recording of iT versus d curves (approach curves) for reversible and quasireversible kinetics at a substrate surface. The resulting expressions for the tip current, iT, show a good fit to more accurate SECM simulations as well as to the experimental response of a reversible and quasireversible reaction. SECM shielding experiments thus give an interesting new insight into SECM approach curves over electrodes at different potentials, which suggest possible applications to measuring heterogeneous kinetics for fast reactions and diffusion coefficient determination.