Simulation of Fast-Scan Nanogap Voltammetry at Double-Cylinder Ultramicroelectrodes

Abstract

High temporal resolution of fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) is widely appreciated in fundamental and applied electrochemistry to quantitatively investigate rapid dynamics of electron transfer and neurotransmission using ultramicroelectrodes (UMEs). Faster potential scan, however, linearly increases the background current, which must be subtracted for quantitative FSCV. Herein, we numerically simulate fast-scan nanogap voltammetry (FSNV) for quantitative detection of diffusing redox species under quasi-steady states without the need of background subtraction while maintaining high temporal resolution of transient FSCV. These advantages of FSNV originate from the use of a parallel pair of cylindrical UMEs with nanometer-wide separation in contrast to FSCV with single UMEs. In FSNV, diffusional redox cycling across the nanogap is driven voltammetrically at the generator electrode and monitored amperometrically at the collector electrode without the transient background. We reveal that the cylindrical collector electrode can reach quasi-steady states ∼104 times faster than the generator electrode with identical sizes to allow for fast scan. Double-microcylinder and nanocylinder UMEs enable quasi-steady-state FSNV at hundreds volts per second as practiced for in-vivo FSCV and megavolts per second as achieved for ultra-FSCV, respectively. Rational design and simple fabrication of double-cylinder UMEs are proposed to broaden the application of nanogap voltammetry.