Precise surface area is needed for accurate characterization of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on metallic surfaces. The aim of this manuscript was to emphasize that miscalculation of surface area is the major source of errors in SAM electrochemical characterization. Limitations are discussed and recommendations given for beginners in analyses of SAM functionalized electrodes. The electrochemical measurements and examples were based on bare gold electrode immobilized with dodecanethiol. The degree of compression of the monolayer properties of formation and reproducibility of the electrochemical response depends on roughness factor, with values closer to the unit being better.

De forma geral, os cursos de física clássica oferecidos nas universidades carecem de exemplos de aplicações nas áreas de química e biologia, o que por vezes desmotivam os alunos de graduação destas áreas a estudarem os conceitos físicos desenvolvidos em sala de aula. Neste texto, a analogia entre os osciladores elétrico e mecânico é explorada visando possívies aplicações em química e biologia, mostrando-se de grande valia devido ao seu uso em técnicas de medição de variação de massa com alta precisão, tanto de forma direta como indireta. Estas técnicas são conhecidas como técnicas eletrogravimétricas e são de especial importância em aplicações que envolvem biossensores. Desta forma, o texto explora o estudo da analogia eletromecânica de forma interdisciplinar envolvendo as áreas de física, química e biologia. Baseado nessa analogia é proposto um experimento que permite a sua aplicação em diferentes níveis conceituais dessas disciplinas, tanto em abordagem básica como mais profunda.

In general, the traditional Physics courses needs examples of the aplications of the Physics concepts in other areas such as Chemistry and Biology. This lacks tend to demotivate Chemistry and Biology students regarding to deal with Physical concepts developed in classroom. In this work, the analogy among mechanic and electric oscillators is investigated to be applied in Chemistry and Biology areas, showing to be valuable due to its aplication in techniques that aims to measure mass variation with high precision. This measure could be made in a direct or indirect way. These techniques are known as electrogravimetric techniques and they are important in biosensor aplications. Thus, this paper explores the electromechanic analogy in an interdisciplinary way involving areas like Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Based on this analogy, it is proposed an experiment that can be applied in different ways, i.e. by an basic approach or more deeper, depending on the students specific formation, in other words, Physics, Chemistry or Biology.

Diffusion models capable of describing the ionic diffusion inside host materials, e.g. oxides, during intercalation processes, have been reported in the literature. However, the majority of the models do not succeed in establishing a good correlation between diffusion and structural environment. What is frequently described is the influence of an addition solid state reaction. In this paper we discuss about such additional reaction and its influence on the diffusion. The responses were evaluated by means of impedance patterns analyzed in (Sn x,Ti1-x)O2 binary systems whose structural disorder control provides a way to evaluate how such structural disorder influences the global diffusion.

This paper discusses different aspects related to the application of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in the study of heterogeneous electrochemical reactions occurring on Dimensionally Stable anodes (DSA®). The most relevant aspects of the semiconductor/electrolyte interface, the application of the EIS classical equivalent circuit approach and the ac porous model in DSA are presented. The paper shows that DSA type electrodes can be consistently investigated by using the ac porous model and an analysis is presented showing the advantage of applying this kind of approach to study heterogeneous reactions on DSA electrodes. Furthermore, some preliminary results on Ti/Ru0,3Ti(0,7-x)Sn x O2 based electrodes are presented to exemplify the use of the ac porous model analysis.