CONTROLLED-POTENTIAL TECHNIQUES

The advantages of controlled-potential techniques include high sensitivity, selectivity towards electroactive species, a wide linear range, portable and low-cost instrumentation, speciation capability, and a wide range of electrodes that allow assays of unusual environments. Several properties of these techniques are summarized in Table 1-1. Extremely low (nanomolar) detection limits can be achieved with very small sample volumes (5-20 pi), thus allowing the determination of analyte amounts of 10 13 to 10 15 mol on a routine basis. Improved selectivity may be achieved via the coupling of controlled-potential schemes with chromatographic or optical procedures. 

The charging of the double layer is responsible for the background (residual) current known as the charging current, which limits die detectability of controlled-potential techniques. Such a charging process is nonfaradaic because electrons are not transferred across the electrode-solution interface. It occurs when a potential is applied across the double layer, or when die electrode area or capacitances are changing. Note that the current is the tune derivative of die charge. Hence, when such processes occur, a residual current flows based on die differential equation... 

Dynamic techniques are those in which electrolytic processes occur at the electrodes and therefore a finite current is passed through the electrochemical cell. Thig discussion will be limited to controlled-potential techniques, namely voltammetry and ampero-metry. While other dynamic electrochemical techniques have been developed, these two are by far the most commonly used for bioelectroanalytical studies. 

The difficulties in conventional polarography as mentioned in Section 3.3.1.1, especially the interference due to the charging current, have led to a series of most interesting developments by means of which these problems can be solved in various ways and to different extents. The newer methods concerned can be divided into controlled-potential techniques and controlled-current techniques. A more striking and practical division is the distinction between advanced DC polarography and AC polarography. These divisions and their further classification are illustrated in Table 3.1. In treating the different classes we have not applied a net separation between their principles, theory and practice, because these aspects are far too interrelated within each class. 

I. Controlled-potential techniques II. Controlled-current techniques ... 

Although normal pulse polarography was developed mainly for analytical purposes, it is a valuable and simple method to study kinetics of not-too-fast electrode reactions. As the other controlled potential techniques, it has the advantage of being applicable to systems where only one of the redox components is present initially. The technique is closely related to d.c. polarography [11] and the expressions discussed in this section are directly applicable to the case of d.c. polarography performed with the static mercury drop electrode (SMDE) if the correction for the spherical shape of this electrode is negligible [21, 22]. 

Cyclic voltammetry is one such electrochemical technique which has found considerable favour amongst coordination chemists. It allows the study of the solution electron-transfer chemistry of a compound on the sub-millisecond to second timescale it has a well developed theoretical basis and is relatively simple and inexpensive. Cyclic voltammetry is a controlled potential technique it is performed at a stationary microelectrode which is in contact with an electrolyte solution containing the species of interest. The potential, E, at the microelectrode is varied linearly with time, t, and at some pre-determined value of E the scan direction is reversed. The current which flows through the cell is measured continuously during the forward and reverse scans and it is the analysis of the resulting i—E response, and its dependence on the scan rate dE/dt, which provides a considerable amount of information. Consider, for example, the idealized behaviour of a compound, M, in an inert electrolyte at an inert microelectrode (Scheme 1). 

Whilst cyclic voltammetry is an informative technique, quantitative studies, particularly on the kinetics of decay of an electrogenerated intermediate, are often best made using other controlled potential techniques. In particular, potential-step and rotating ring-disc measurements give high-quality data.1... 

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