Abstract
The modification of carbide derived carbon (CDC) thin film electrodes with anthraquinone (AQ) molecules was demonstrated by using pulsed chronoamperometry, in 0.1 M NEt4BF4/ACN solution of AQ diazonium derivative. The functionalization of CDC electrodes was only possible when a critical pore size is reached: only 2 nm pore diameter CDC can be grafted with AQ moieties, smaller pore size leading to a poorly functionalized electrode. High AQ surface coverage of 0.88 × 10−10 mol.cm−2 was determined using 2 nm pore size CDC. Despite a decrease in double layer capacitance value of about 10%, the total capacitance of the AQ-modified on-chip CDC electrodes was twice larger than that of pristine CDC film, leading to high total capacitance value of 44 mF.cm−2 (338 F.cm−3). The cyclability of the AQ-modified on-chip CDC electrode was also investigated. The faradic contribution of AQ grafted molecules progressively decreased during cycling and only 39% of the normalized capacity remained after 500 cycles; this decrease has been assigned to electrostatic repulsion of dianionic AQ confined in narrow micropores in the alkaline media.