Microfabrication of thin film based microelectrodes

Abstract

Water as the essential living source is getting diminished due to the natural and man caused pollutions. However, urbanization has increased the demand of the clean water dramatically. Therefore, a water monitoring system is required to ensure the water quality. In this project, nitrogen doped diamond-like carbon (NDLC) with nitrogen flow rate at 10, 20, 40 and 60sccm deposited on silicon substrate by Filtered Cathodic Vacuum Arc (FCVA) were used as working electrodes to conduct experiments. These thin film based electrodes incorporated in an electrochemical sensor cell is able to trace the metal ions in the water effectively. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and micro Raman spectroscopy were used to analyze the characteristic of the bonding structure. Atomic force microscopy was used to study the surface morphology of these electrodes. Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) and Square Wave Anodic Stripping Voltammetry (SWASV) experiments were conducted to investigate electrochemical performance in the ability of tracing metal ions. Striped and circular shaped microarrays were fabricated on the NDLC film electrodes by mean of photolithography. CV and SWASV were conducted to investigate their electrochemical performance.