Département de chimie moléculaire

Ni (II) hydroxide nanoparticles with very high oxidative electrocatalytic activity toward sugars were prepd. on different electrodes by a simple electrochem. procedure consisting of the following: (i) electrooxidn. of a dinickel precursor that produces microstructures of a novel paddle-wheel tetrakis-acetato dinickel (II) complex and (ii) subsequent alk. treatment of these microstructures to produce Ni (II) hydroxide nanoparticles on the electrode. The novel paddle-wheel complex was characterized by energy-dispersive x-ray (EDX), XPS, and mass spectrometry. The proposed electrochem. mechanism for the surface generation of this complex involves coupling of homogeneous chem. reactions to heterogeneous electron-transfer reactions. The high and homogeneous coverage and the 1-3 nm size of the Ni hydroxide nanoparticles generated play key roles in the electrocatalytic efficiency and the reproducibility toward the oxidn. of several sugars. The high sensitivity values obtained prove the utility of the method to develop Ni hydroxide-modified electrodes for sensing and electrocatalysis applications. [on SciFinder(R)]