The contribution of microelectrodes to electroanalytical chemistry: From reaction mechanisms and scanning electrochemical microscopy to ocean sensors

The advent of microelectrodes has opened new areas of study and significantly improved the quality of electroanalytical data. Using examples from the author’s work, this brief review describes contributions made by microelectrodes to the field of electroanalytical chemistry. Several fundamental studies, ranging from the development of theoretical approaches for the scanning electrochemical microscope to the determination of the mechanism and kinetics of coupled chemical reactions, are recalled. Most involve a serious dose of numerical simulations. Several applied studies illustrate the development of experimental approaches, in particular the development of nanostructured microelectrodes, to improve the reliability and quality of the microelectrode response for analytical measurements and sensing.