Ultramicroelectrodes and microfluidics: Towards new perspectives in analytical electrochemistry

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Advances in microfabrication techniques now make it possible to easily implement electrodes inside microdevices for the exploitation of new fields of application in analytical electrochemistry. The reduction of electrode dimensions combined with a confinement of the processes allows to increase the performances in electrochemistry but also to consider innovative concepts within the framework of the development of laboratories on chip. The mass transport at the electrodes is a major step in the control of electrochemical processes in confined environment. It is conditioned by the absence or presence in situ of a flow, but also by the geometry and configuration of the devices. Different examples will illustrate both a theoretical and experimental approach to electrochemistry in microfluidics. Some concepts and applications will be presented to demonstrate the potentialities of miniaturization.