Controlled decoration of boron-doped diamond electrodes by electrochemical click reaction (e−CLICK)

Controlled surface functionalization of electrode materials is an important technique in various fields such as analytical chemistry, molecular electronics, and molecular recognition in biological systems. In this work, we report the control decoration of boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes by electrochemically driven copper(I)-catalyzed Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of alkyne and azide (e−CLICK) in which the catalyst is produced by electroreduction of copper(II) species. As the e−CLICK strategy enabled to tune the produced amount of the copper(I) catalyst electrochemically, the alkyne-terminated BDD electrodes were decorated with azide-terminated ferrocene in a controlled manner.