Diffusion impedance Resistance, limiting

The electrolyte resistance Re is added in series with the previous impedance. If the electrochemical reaction is mass-trai3sport limited, the previous equivalent circuit is still valid, but the Faradaic impedance includes a diffusion impedance as described in Chapter 11. 

To better understand the diffusion-limited school of thought mentioned above, it is worth digressing momentarily on another noble -metal electrode system silver on YSZ. Kleitz and co-workers conducted a series of studies of silver point-contact microelectrodes, made by solidifying small (200—2000 //m) silver droplets onto polished YSZ surfaces. Following in-situ fabrication, the impedance of these silver microelectrodes was measured as a function of T (600-800 °C), P02 (0.01-1.0 atm), and droplet radius. As an example. Figure 9a shows a Nyquist plot of the impedance under one set of conditions, which the authors resolve into two primary components, the largest (most resistive) occurring at very low frequency (0.01—0.1 Hz) and the second smaller component at moderately low frequency ( 10 Hz). 

Figure 10. Kleitz s reaction pathway model for solid-state gas-diffusion electrodes. Traditionally, losses in reversible work at an electrochemical interface can be described as a series of contiguous drops in electrical state along a current pathway, for example. A—E—B. However, if charge transfer at point E is limited by the availability of a neutral electroactive intermediate (in this case ad (b) sorbed oxygen at the interface), a thermodynamic (Nernstian) step in electrical state [d/j) develops, related to the displacement in concentration of that intermediate from equilibrium. In this way it is possible for irreversibilities along a current-independent pathway (in this case formation and transport of electroactive oxygen) to manifest themselves as electrical resistance. This type of chemical valve , as Kleitz calls it, may also involve a significant reservoir of intermediates that appears as a capacitance in transient measurements such as impedance. Portions of this image are adapted from ref 46. (Adapted with permission from ref 46. Copyright 1993 Rise National Laboratory, Denmark.)...

We will consider here the case where the mass transfer limitation is due to the diffusion of the species. When the mass transfer becomes predominant in the low-frequency range, experimental plots obtained in the Nyquist plane shift from the semicircular shape. In that case, indeed, the impedance ZFcan no longer be described as only a charge transfer resistance, but as a combination of Rcv with the impedance of diffusion ZD. ZD changes with the frequency it takes into account the relaxation processes inside the diffusion layer. Different cases can be described depending on the diffusion layer thickness. 

An ideal unpolarized cell would have R = 0 and infinite current an ideal polarized cell would have a fixed R independent of and thus a constant current. Reality is somewhere in between There are several sources of "polarization" that can be considered as finite contributions to the overall resistance R > 0 (or better, the impedance Z). The IR drop, from whatever source, is also called the overpotential t] (i.e., IR > 0), which always decreases the overall E remember that R is always a function of time and E. The causes of polarization are (1) diffusion-limited mass transfer of ions from bulk to electrode (2) chemical side reactions (if any), and (3) slow electron transfer at the electrode between the adsorbed species to be oxidized and the adsorbed species to be reduced. 

If a resistor is added in series with the parallel RC circuit, the overall circuit becomes the well-known Randles cell, as shown in Figure 4.11a. This is a model representing a polarizable electrode (or an irreversible electrode process), based on the assumptions that a diffusion limitation does not exist, and that a simple single-step electrochemical reaction takes place on the electrode surface. Thus, the Faradaic impedance can be simplified to a resistance, called the charge-transfer resistance. The single-step electrochemical reaction is described as... 

Two impedance arcs, which correspond to two relaxation times (i.e., charge transfer plus mass transfer) often occur when the cell is operated at high current densities or overpotentials. The medium-frequency feature (kinetic arc) reflects the combination of an effective charge-transfer resistance associated with the ORR and a double-layer capacitance within the catalyst layer, and the low-fiequency arc (mass transfer arc), which mainly reflects the mass-transport limitations in the gas phase within the backing and the catalyst layer. Due to its appearance at low frequencies, it is often attributed to a hindrance by finite diffusion. However, other effects, such as constant dispersion due to inhomogeneities in the electrode surface and the adsorption, can also contribute to this second arc, complicating the analysis. Normally, the lower-frequency loop can be eliminated if the fuel cell cathode is operated on pure oxygen, as stated above [18],... 

If diffusion limitation is considered, the overpotential decays more slowly, as shown in Fig. 7K. This should be evident, since the Warburg impedance -W- is added in series with the faradaic resistance / p. In this case the plot of logq versus t is not linear and a much more complex mathematical treatment, taking into account the diffusion equations, must be applied to calculate the kinetic parameters. 

The uncertainty associated with the interpretation of the impedance response can be reduced by using an electrode for which the current and potential distribution is uniform. There are two types of distributions that can be used to guide electrode design. As described in Section 5.6.1, the primary distribution accounts for the influence of Ohmic resistance and mass-transfer-limited distributions account for the role of convective diffusion. The secondary distributions account for the role of kinetic resistance which tends to reduce the nonuniformity seen for a primary distribution. Thus, if the primary distribution is uniform, the secondary... 

Recently, it was reported by Pyun et al. thatthe CTs of transition metal oxides such as Lii 8CoO2 [14,77-79], l i,, AiO. [11,12], Li, sMii.O [17,80,81], Lij + 8[Ti5/3Lii/3]O4 [11, 28], V2O5 [11, 55] and carbonaceous materials [18, 82-84] hardly exhibit a typical trend of diffusion-controlled lithium transport - that is, Cottrell behavior. Rather, it was found that the current-potential relationship would hold Ohm s law during the CT experiments, and it was suggested that lithium transport at the interface of electrode and electrolyte was mainly limited by internal cell resistance, and not by lithium diffusion in the bulk electrode. This concept is referred to as cell-impedance-controlled lithium transport. 

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