UV-ozone dry-cleaning process for indium oxide electrodes for protein electrochemistry

The present study reports, for the first time, on electrochemical responses of cytochrome c at a UV-ozone treated indium oxide electrode. Results from surface tension measurements indicate that UV-ozone treatment is an efficient cleaning procedure to remove organic species contamination on surfaces. Well-defined redox responses for cytochrome c were observed at a UV-ozone treated fully hydrophilic indium oxide electrode. Electrochemical parameters, including the diffusion coefficient, the heterogeneous electron transfer rate constant and the redox potential, were in good agreement with those previously reported. However, decrease in peak current for cytochrome c and [Fe(CN)6]4− were observed at a UV-ozone treated electrode. From XPS results, this behavior would be understood to indicate a decrease in homogeneous active electrode surface area by a decrease in conductivity of the indium oxide surface by UV-ozone treatment. Simple and effective UV-ozone treatment methods are useful for surface contamination sensitive electrochemistry.