Detection of individual nanoparticle impacts using etched carbon nanoelectrodes

•Buffered HF-etched carbon nanoelectrodes are used to detect nanoparticle collisions.•The etched nanoelectrodes ensure high impact frequency while maintaining low noise.•Particle coulometry using the etched nanoelectrodes allows reliable nanoparticle sizing.

A rapid and reliable nanofabrication route produces electrodes with beneficial properties for electrochemistry based on stochastic nanoparticle collision events. Carbon nanoelectrodes are etched to expose conical carbon tips which present an increased surface area for the detection of nanoparticle impacts. The tuneable electrode size as well as the conical geometry allow to increase the observed particle impact frequency while maintaining low background noise. Moreover, anodic particle coulometry for the sizing of silver nanoparticles shows that the detected impacts are representative of the polydisperse particle population.

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