Effect of anodic and cathodic treatments on the charge transfer of boron doped diamond electrodes

Abstract This paper is concerned with the study of the influence of electrochemical pre-treatments on the behavior of highly boron doped diamond electrodes. Anodic and cathodic preconditioning, performed during 10 s either with 10 − 4  A/cm − 2 (10 − 3  C cm − 2 ) or 10 − 1  A/cm − 2 (1 C cm − 2 ), has been studied. Cyclic voltammetry at as-deposited, anodically and cathodically treated electrodes, in presence of 2 redox couples serving as electrochemical probes is analyzed in the light of the surface characterization given by XPS chemical analysis. Ce 4+/3+ redox couple in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 medium and Fe(CN) 6 3−/4− redox couple in 0.1 M KOH medium, have been studied before and after the different treatments. The results of Mott–Schottky plots and current voltage curves are reported and show that the electrochemical response of BDD electrodes is very dependent on the current density involved in the electrochemical preconditioning. The modification of surface bond termination – either hydrogen or oxygen – studied by XPS analyses is also strongly dependent on electrochemical pre-treatment. In particular, it is evidenced that the most important conversion of surface functionalities from hydrogen to oxygen is obtained when the anodic treatment is performed with the smallest current density. Finally, a correlation between surface terminations and charge transfer is evidenced.