The interest in nano-objects has recently dramatically increased in all fields of science, and electrochemistry is no exception. As a consequence, in situ and operando visualization of electrochemical processes is needed at the nanoscale. Herein, we propose a new interferometric microscopy based on an antireflective thin metal electrode layer. The technique is coupled to electrochemistry in a model example: the electro-deposition of Ag metallic nanoparticles (NPs). This challenges the current opto-electrochemical methods and even those relying on nano-impact detection. Indeed, the sensitivity allows the dynamic in situ visualization of the electrochemical growth and dissolution of individual Ag NPs, whose size was tracked dynamically down to 15 nm in diameter. The use of microelectrodes provides interesting quantitative analysis of the NPs, from optically resolved arrays of single NPs to condensed arrays of (unresolved) NPs. Particularly, the optical analysis of all the individual NPs allows the reconstruction of optical voltammograms similar to the electrochemical ones. Finally, the NP dissolution–redeposition is also investigated.

中文翻译：

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用于光学监测单个银纳米粒子电沉积的抗反射金电极的前景

最近，在所有科学领域中，对纳米物体的兴趣都大大增加了，电化学也不例外。结果，需要在纳米尺度上对电化学过程进行原位和操作可视化。在此，我们提出了一种基于抗反射薄金属电极层的新型干涉显微镜。在一个模型示例中，该技术与电化学耦合：Ag金属纳米颗粒（NPs）的电沉积。这挑战了当前的光电化学方法，甚至是那些依赖于纳米碰撞检测的方法。确实，灵敏度允许动态原位单个Ag NPs的电化学生长和溶解过程的可视化，其直径可动态跟踪至直径15 nm。使用微电极可以对NP进行有趣的定量分析，从单个NP的光学拆分阵列到（未解析的）NP的浓缩阵列。特别是，对所有单个NP的光学分析可以重建类似于电化学伏安图的伏安图。最后，还对NP的溶出-再沉积进行了研究。