A New Method to Control the Coverage of Irreversibly Adsorbing Sb on Au Electrode

We report on the development of a new method to control the coverage of a metal film prepared with immersion method. An Sb species in solution adsorbed irreversibly at an open circuit potential (∼0.2 V) as an oxygenous Sb(Ⅲ) on a clean Au electrode, and the adsorbates showed voltammetric features in the potential range from 0.1 V to - 0.4 V. The full coverage of the Sb adsorbates was ∼0.45. On the contrary, the Sb species in solution did not adsorb at all on iodine-covered Au electrode surfaces, when the iodine coverages were more than 0.25. As the iodine coverage decreased below 0.25, however, the irreversible adsorption of Sb took place and the coverage of Sb increased accordingly. This electrochemical behavior has been interpreted as the penetration of the adsorbing Sb species in solution through open spaces among the iodine adlattices of coverages less than 0.25. With the manipulation of the iodine coverage, the controllable range of Sb coverage was from 0 to 0.45, i.e. the full coverage of Sb. In addition, the reversible deposition of Sb on an iodine-saturated Au electrode with voltammetric scan has been observed, which is contrasted with the adsorptive behavior of Sb on the clean Au electrode.