1. Principles

1.1 General

The quartz crystal microbalance (or nanobalance) ( MCQ) is a high-precision instrument for measuring mass variations on the surface of an electrode [2] at [9] . The term microbalance (or nanobalance) derives from the sensitivity of this instrument, which is well below the microgram. Historically, mass variation measurements have been carried out using balances based on mechanical or electromagnetic force measurement. However, these instruments generally only allow measurement in air. In the case of deposition or dissolution phenomena in solution, measurements can therefore only be taken ex situ, and processes cannot be monitored continuously....