A novel electrode surface fabricated by directly attaching gold nanoparticles onto NH2+ ions implanted-indium tin oxide substrate

A new type of gold nanoparticle attached to a NH2+ ion implanted-indium tin oxide surface was fabricated without using peculiar binder molecules, such as 3-(aminopropyl)-trimethoxysilane. A NH2/indium tin oxide film was obtained by implantation at an energy of 80 keV with a fluence of 5 × 1015 ions/cm2. The gold nanoparticle-modified film was characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and electrochemical techniques and compared with a modified bare indium tin oxide surface and 3-(aminopropyl)-trimethoxysilane linked surface, which exhibited a relatively low electron transfer resistance and high electrocatalytic activity. The results demonstrate that NH2+ ion implanted-indium tin oxide films can provide an important route to immobilize nanoparticles, which is attractive in developing new biomaterials.