Abstract
A boron-doped diamond(BDD) electrode is attractive for many electrochemical applications due to its distinctive properties: an extremely wide potential window in aqueous and non-aqueous electrolytes, a very low and stable background current and a high resistance to surface fouling. An Ar gas mixture of $H_2$, $CH_4$ and trimethylboron (TMB, 0.1 % $C_3H_9B$ in $H_2$) is used in a hot filament chemical vapor deposition(HFCVD) reactor. The effect of argon addition on quality, structure and electrochemical property is investigated by scanning electron microscope(SEM), X-ray diffraction(XRD) and cyclic voltammetry(CV). In this study, BDD electrodes are manufactured using different $Ar/CH_4$ ratios ($Ar/CH_4$ = 0, 1, 2 and 4). The results of this study show that the diamond grain size decreases with increasing $Ar/CH_4$ ratios. On the other hand, the samples with an $Ar/CH_4$ ratio above 5 fail to produce a BDD electrode. In addition, the BDD electrodes manufactured by introducing different $Ar/CH_4$ ratios result in the most inclined to (111) preferential growth when the $Ar/CH_4$ ratio is 2. It is also noted that the electrochemical properties of the BDD electrode improve with the process of adding argon.