Fabrication of Single Crystal Ultramicroelectrodes of Noble Metals

In the beginning the book shortly reviews theory of crystal growth and use of traditional and more exotic methods to grow and characterize single crystals. Further the book describes in great detail three methods developed by the author to grow single crystals of gold, platinum and silver. Especially interesting is use of gels as a crystal growing medium. The gel method was successfully applied to grow gold single crystals and is so simple that even elementary school student can grow beautiful gold crystals of various shapes at home. Incorporation of minute single crystals, carefully selected and cleaned, into tiny electrodes using the procedure developed by the author is described in the detail. This procedure for manipulation micron-sized crystals and fabrication of electrical contacts as well as electrically insulating whole crystal except working surface is applicable to different metals with just slight modifications. The ultramicroelectrodes are characterized with surface characterization techniques as well as electrochemical methods.