Monitoring Bipolar Electrochemistry and Hydrogen Evolution Reaction of a Single Gold Microparticle under Sub-Micropipette Confinement

Herein, an approach to track the process of autorepeating bipolar reactions and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) on a micro gold bipolar electrode (BPE) is established. Once blocking the channel of the sub-micropipette tip, the formed gold microparticle is polarized into the wireless BPE, which induces the dissolution of the gold at the anode and the HER at the cathode. The current response shows a periodic behavior with three regions: the bubble generation region (I), the bubble rupture/generation region (II), and the channel opening region (III). After a stable low baseline current of region I, a series of positive spike signals caused by single H₂ nanobubbles rupture/generation are recorded standing for the beginning of region II. Meanwhile, the dissolution of the gold blocking at the orifice will create a new channel, increasing the baseline current for region III, where the synthesis of gold occurs again, resulting in another periodic response. Finite element simulations are applied to unveil the mechanism thermodynamically. In addition, the integral charge of the H₂ nanobubbles in region II corresponds to the consumption of the anode gold. It simultaneously monitors autorepeating bipolar reactions of a single gold microparticle and HER of a single H₂ nanobubble electrochemically, which reveals an insightful physicochemical mechanism in nanoscale confinement and makes the glass nanopore an ideal candidate to further reveal the heterogeneity of catalytic capability at the single particle level.