Abstract

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) is a metastable form of amorphous carbon characterized by its high fraction of sp^3-bonded carbon atoms. This “diamond-likeness” arising from the sp³ bonded carbon atoms gives DLC many of its unique properties. Thus, applications of DLC include a wide range of fields, such as machine parts, biomedical coatings, microelectromechanical (MEMS) devices, sunglasses and so forth [1–5]. DLC is also a promising bioelectrode material owing to its several attractive electrochemical properties, such as (i) chemical inertness and the resulting (ii) wide potential window as well as (iii) low background current. Thus, DLC has been used recently in several analytical applications ranging from biomolecule detection [1–4] to trace analysis of heavy metals [5]. The basic electrochemical properties and response of DLC to several redox systems have been investigated [6–9] and also recently reviewed [10]. Many of the unique electrochemical properties of DLC originate from the specific structural features of the material in thin film form (thickness range from a few nanometers to a few tens of nanometers) as recently discussed in Ref. [11].