Critical reviews on recent states and challenges in spectroelectrochemistry with applications to microfluidic systems

Spectroelectrochemistry (SEC) is an integrated technique that marries the best of electrochemistry and spectroscopy during the electron transfer process. The review presents the recent developments in two not-frequently used but promising techniques (nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) SEC and dark field microscopy (DFM) SEC). The dissemination of these two SEC techniques is required for their future widespread applications. The research challenges and development perspectives of NMR and DFM SEC are elaborated. Furthermore, it is found that employing SEC techniques in microfluidics is becoming a research hotspot. Therefore, Raman and ultraviolet-Visiblevisible-based SEC techniques in microfluidics are discussed. The last section summarizes and elaborates on the inherent challenges with SEC.