SECM imaging of electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction reaction on thin film materials

The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) on sputtered Pt thin films in acidic solution was successfully studied by scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) in a modified tip generation–substrate collection (TG–SC) mode. SECM images of ORR activity in different sample areas were obtained and it is shown that this TG–SC SECM technique can be used to screen electrocatalytic activity of continuous thin film samples efficiently and quickly for the ORR in an acidic medium. It is observed that this technique is not very sensitive to the tip–substrate separation within a certain range. The SECM images obtained are strongly dependent on the substrate potential. The advantages of this technique for studying ORR electrocatalysts are discussed.