Discharge cavitation during microwave electrochemistry at micrometre-sized electrodes

Liza Rassaei, M Nebel, N V Rees, R G Compton, W Schuhmann, Frank Marken

OAI: oai:purehost.bath.ac.uk:openaire_cris_publications/fd9e89bb-998e-4296-a666-2b01682def52 • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/b920154h

Microwave induced activation of electrochemical processes at microelectrodes (ca. 0.8 µm diameter) immersed in aqueous electrolyte media is shown to be driven by (i) continuous stable cavitation (giving rise to Faradaic current enhancements by up to three orders of magnitude) and (ii) transient discharge cavitation on the µs timescale (giving rise to cathodic plasma current spikes and more violent surface erosion effects).