Removal and evaluation of non-diamond carbon on boron-doped diamond electrodes

Boron-doped diamond electrodes possess many qualities that make them promising candidates for chronic in vivo neurochemical sensors. The fabrication process for boron-doped diamond films produces additional forms of non-diamond carbon that can confound electrochemical performance and neurochemical detection. Various removal treatments have been implemented for other applications of boron-doped diamond, but they have not been very well evaluated or compared. In this work, we present the use of electrode double-layer capacitance and quinone surface coverage to evaluate the effectiveness of three different non-diamond carbon removal treatments on boron-doped diamond microelectrodes designed for neurochemical detection. The results indicate that sulfuric acid cycling post-deposition and incorporation of an atomic hydrogen cool-down step into the deposition process reduce the amount of surface non-diamond carbon contaminating boron-doped diamond electrodes.