The relationship of the gas bubble size to the size distribution critically influences the effectiveness of electrochemical processes. Several optical and acoustical techniques have been used to characterize the size and emission frequency of bubbles
. Here, we used zero-dimensional (0D) ion-sensitive field-effect transistors (ISFETs) buried under a microbath to detect the emission of individual bubbles electrically and to generate statistics on the bubble emission time. The bubble size was evaluated via a simple model of the electrolytic current. We suggest that energy lost during water electrolysis could be used to generate electric pulses at an optimal efficiency with an array of 0D ISFETs.
We investigate the mechanisms responsible for the low-frequency noise in liquid-gated nano-scale silicon nanowire field-effect transistors (SiNW-FETs) and show that the charge-noise level is lower than elementary charge. Our measurements also show th
at ionic strength of the surrounding electrolyte has a minimal effect on the overall noise. Dielectric polarization noise seems to be at the origin of the 1/f noise in our devices. The estimated spectral density of charge noise Sq = 1.6x10-2 e/sqr(Hz) at 10 Hz opens the door to metrological studies with these SiNW-FETs for the electrical detection of a small number of molecules.
