Cadmium electrode characterization

Ideally a standard cell is constmcted simply and is characterized by a high constancy of emf, a low temperature coefficient of emf, and an emf close to one volt. The Weston cell, which uses a standard cadmium sulfate electrolyte and electrodes of cadmium amalgam and a paste of mercury and mercurous sulfate, essentially meets these conditions. The voltage of the cell is 1.0183 V at 20°C. The a-c Josephson effect, which relates the frequency of a superconducting oscillator to the potential difference between two superconducting components, is used by NIST to maintain the unit of emf. The definition of the volt, however, remains as the Q/A derivation described. 

Cadmium sulfide particulate films, generated in thicknesses of 300 50 A at arachidic acid (AA) monolayer interfaces, have been characterized in situ by STM under potentiostatic control [644], Electrical contact was made between the tip of the STM, acting as the working electrode (WE), which was in contact with the CdS particulate film floating on aqueous 0.30 M NaCl, and the reference (RE) and counter (CE) electrodes, placed in the subphase (Fig. 112) [644]. A well-defined single-reduction wave at about — 1.15 V was observed. Prolonged exposure to room light shifted the reduction peak to — 0.85 V. Electrical and photoelectrical characterizations have also been performed on Ti-foil-supported, 5000-A-thick CdS particulate films in an electrochemical cell (Fig. 113) [644]. The Ti foil was used as the WE, while the RE and CE were placed into 0.50 M... 

The properties of the dual-film electrode were characterized by in situ Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) reflection absorption spectroscopy [3]. The FTIR spectrometer used was a Shimadzu FTIR-8100M equipped with a wide-band mercury cadmium teluride (MCT) detector cooled with liquid nitrogen. In situ FTIR measurements were carried out in a spectroelectro-chemical cell in which the dual-film electrode was pushed against an IR transparent silicon window to form a thin layer of solution. A total of 100 interferometric scans was accumulated with the electrode polarized at a given potential. The potential was then shifted to the cathodic side, and a new spectrum with the same number of scans was assembled. The reference electrode used in this experiment was an Ag I AgCl I saturated KCl electrode. The IR spectra are represented as AR/R in the normalized form, where AR=R-R(E ), and R and R(E ) are the reflected intensity measured at a desired potential and a base potential, respectively. 

The electrochemistry of zinc, cadmium, and mercury porphyrins is uncomphcated and only macrocycle-centered electrode reactions are observed in nonaqueous solvents [7, 21]. Metalloporphyrins with this type of metal ion have been studied in some detail, but the best characterization of the electrochemical reaction products has been obtained with zinc porphyrins... 

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