ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to demonstrate that scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) is ideally suited to probing solid/liquid interfacial processes, overcoming many of the deficiencies inherent in conventional methodologies by providing new quantitative insights into rates and mechanisms. In general, this chapter is concerned only with processes that involve the net phase transfer of material, specifically (1) adsorption/desorption kinetics at hydrous metal oxides (1), (2) the dissolution of ionic crystals (2-8), and (3) corrosion phenomena (9-19). These processes are of considerable fundamental and practical importance (20-26). Related applications of SECM as a probe of heterogeneous electron transfer reactions at electrode/electrolyte interfaces and in the modification of solid surfaces are described in Chapters 5 and 13, respectively.
