Combined soft lithographic and electrochemical fabrication of nanostructured platinum microelectrode arrays for miniaturized sensor applications

Abstract

Facile fabrication of large electroactive surface area Pt microelectrodes by a combined soft lithographic and electroplating approach is reported. Pt nanostructures have been obtained on Au interdigitated array templates using potentiodynamic electrodeposition in additive-free platinisation solution. The surface morphology and chemical composition of the Pt microelectrodes were characterised by scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) techniques. The developed fabrication approach proved to be highly reproducible, and the obtained nanostructured Pt surfaces exhibited high sensitivity to H2O2 (2662 μA cm−2 mM−1) as tested by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The linear range of the Pt microelectrode sensor spanned from 1 μM to 6 mM, the limit of detection was as low as 21.7 nM. The demonstrated precise, simple, wet bench-compatible fabrication approach resulting in the controlled growth of Pt nanostructures is promising for the development of low dimention sensors for medical, biotechnological and other analytical applications.