Nanoconfined Electrochemical Sensing of Single Silver Nanoparticles with a Wireless Nanopore Electrode

Single entity electrochemistry (SEE) has emerged as a promising method for precise measurement and fundamental understanding of the heterogeneity of single entities. Herein, we propose the dual responsive SEE sensing of the silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) collisions through a wireless nanopore electrode (WNE). Given the high temporal resolution and low background noise features, the Faradaic and capacitive currents provide the AgNPs' collision response. The electron transfer between the AgNPs and the electrode surface is identified under a bipolar electrochemical mechanism. Compared to the ultramicroelectrode, multistep oxidation of 30 nm AgNPs is observed due to the decreased interaction of the nanoparticles to the electrode. Moreover, the nanoconfinement of WNE plays a vital role in the repeated capturing of nanoparticles from the nontunneling region into the tunneling region until a complete oxidation. As a comparison, the collision of 5 nm AgNPs with higher interaction at the electrode surface shows great decrease in the multistep events. Thus, we propose a nanoconfined interaction based SEE method which could be used for simultaneously capturing the Faradaic and capacitive response. The nanoconfined interaction based SEE method holds great promise in the better understanding of heterogeneity of single particles.