Effect of H and O termination on the charge transfer of moderately boron doped diamond electrodes

Abstract Most studies on the electrochemistry of boron doped diamond electrodes deal with highly doped materials which generally act as semi-metallic electrodes. This paper is concerned with the study of the electrochemical behavior of moderately boron doped diamond. The behavior of as-deposited, annealed, and oxidized electrodes in a 2 M H 2 SO 4 medium containing the Ce 4+ /Ce 3+ redox couple as an electrochemical probe is analyzed in the light of the material surface characterization given by XPS analysis. The results of Mott–Schottky plots and cyclic voltammetry are reported and show that the electrochemical response of these moderately doped electrodes is characteristic of semiconductors. The p + -type conductivity of the surface hydrogenated layer present on as-deposited samples and the influence of surface bond termination—either hydrogen or oxygen—on charge transfer are evidenced.