Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy electrical equivalent circuit model

Rational optimization of performance should be the main goal in development of any chemical sensor. In order to do that, we must have some quantitative tools of determination of key performance parameters. As we have seen already, for electrochemical sensors those parameters are the charge-transfer resistance and the double-layer capacitance. Particularly the former plays a critical role. Here we outline two approaches the Tafel plots, which are simple, inexpensive, but with limited applicability, and the Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS), based on the equivalent electrical circuit model, which is more universal, more accurate, and has a greater didactic value. 

The second meaning of the word circuit is related to electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. A key point in this spectroscopy is the fact that any -> electrochemical cell can be represented by an equivalent electrical circuit that consists of electronic (resistances, capacitances, and inductances) and mathematical components. The equivalent circuit is a model that more or less correctly reflects the reality of the cell examined. At minimum, the equivalent circuit should contain a capacitor of - capacity Ca representing the -> double layer, the - impedance of the faradaic process Zf, and the uncompensated - resistance Ru (see -> IRU potential drop). The electronic components in the equivalent circuit can be arranged in series (series circuit) and parallel (parallel circuit). An equivalent circuit representing an electrochemical - half-cell or an -> electrode and an uncomplicated electrode process (-> Randles circuit) is shown below. Ic and If in the figure are the -> capacitive current and the -+ faradaic current, respectively. 

Membrane structures that contain the visual receptor protein rhodopsin were formed by detergent dialysis on platinum, silicon oxide, titanium oxide, and indium—tin oxide electrodes. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was used to evaluate the biomembrane structures and their electrical properties. A model equivalent circuit is proposed to describe the membrane-electrode interface. The data suggest that the surface structure is a relatively complete single-membrane bilayer with a coverage of 0.97 and with long-term stability/... 

Electric Double Layer and Fractal Structure of Surface Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in a sufficiently broad frequency range is a method well suited for the determination of equilibrium and kinetic parameters (faradaic or non-faradaic) at a given applied potential. The main difficulty in the analysis of impedance spectra of solid electrodes is the frequency dispersion of the impedance values, referred to the constant phase or fractal behavior and modeled in the equivalent circuit by the so-called constant phase element (CPE) [5,15,16, 22, 35, 36]. The frequency dependence is usually attributed to the geometrical nonuniformity and the roughness of PC surfaces having fractal nature with so-called selfsimilarity or self-affinity of the structure resulting in an unusual fractal dimension... 

Electrochemical methods are well adapted for characterizing the corrosion behavior of coated metals in solution. Because of the high resistance of organic coatings, ac methods are generally more suited than dc polarization methods. In electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIC) one measures the response of the coated electrode to a small amplitude ac perturbation as a function of frequency (Chapter 5). The interpretation of the measured frequency response, in principle, requires a physical model. However, for coated metals useful information is more easily obtained by representing the metal-coating-electrolyte interface by an electrical circuit (equivalent circuit). 

In an laboratory environment, state determination of Li-ion cells is often accomplished with Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). Using these impedance spectra, impedance-based models are parameterized in the frequency domain with well-known fitting procedures. These models are designed to reduce the dimension of the measurement data in order to describe the state of a Li-ion cell with few parameters. The parameters of these models can than be used to determine the cell s current state (SOx). There exists a variety of impedance-based models represented by electrical equivalent circuits. 

Features of the impedance spectra of Fig. 3.15a may be modeled by a simple modified Randles-Ershler equivalent circuit shown in Fig. 3.15c. In this model, is the solution resistance, and is the charge-transfer resistance at the electrode/eIectrol e interface. A constant phase element (CPE) was used instead of a doublelayer capacitance to take into account the surface roughness of the particle. Qn is the insertion capacitance, and Zw is the Warbui impedance that corresponds to the solid-state diffusion of the Li-ion into the bulk anode. The Warburg element was used only for impedance data obtained at the tenth charge. The electrical components of the surface film which is likely formed on the electrode were disregarded, because no time constant related to this process could be seen in the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) spectra. It was also checked that their inclusion in the model of Fig. 3.15c does not improve the fit. 

The impedance spectroscopy of steel corrosion in concentrated HC1, with and without inhibitors, exhibit relatively straightforward electrochemical phenomenology and can be represented by simple equivalent circuits involving primarily passive electrical elements. Analysis of these circuits for steel corroding in HC1 per se reveals that the heterogeneity of the surface is established rapidly and can be simulated with a simple electrical circuit model. 

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