Impedance of porous electrodes

In the industrial applications of electrochemistiy, the use of smooth surfaces is impractical and the electrodes must possess a large real surface area in order to increase the total current per unit of geometric surface area. For that reason porous electrodes are usually used, for example, in industrial electrolysis, fuel cells, batteries, and supercapacitors [400]. Porous siufaces are different from rough surfaces in the depth, /, and diameter, r, of pores for porous electrodes the ratio Hr is very important. Characterization of porous electrodes can supply information about their real surface area and electrochemical utilization. These factors are important in their design, and it makes no sense to design pores that are too long and that are impenetrable by a current. Impedance studies provide simple tools to characterize such materials. Initially, an electrode model was developed by several authors for dc response of porous electrodes [401-406]. Such solutions must be known first to be able to develop the ac response. In what follows, porous electrode response for ideally polarizable electrodes will be presented, followed by a response in the presence of redox processes. Finally, more elaborate models involving pore size distribution and continuous porous models will be presented. 

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The models that consider this approach are largely based on the assumption of effectively homogeneous local relaxation processes related to transport in each of the phases and electrical charge exchange between them. Thus, the complex problem of an uneven distribution of electrical current and potential inside the electrode can be described analytically, and impedances can be calculated. Furthermore the models may be conveniently pictured as a double-channel transmission line (Fig. 3.5). In several papers, the theory of the impedance of porous electrodes has been extended to cover those cases in which a complex frequency response arises in the transport processes [100] or at the inner surface [194,203]. 

Lasia, A., Impedance of porous electrodes. Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 1995. 397 pp. 27-33... 

Fig. 9.17 Transmission line representing impedance of porous electrode in presence of redox reaction and z are resistances and impedances of small sections of electrode...

Fig. 9.25 Electrical equivalent circuit representing determination of impedance of porous electrode...

The next two chapters deal with impedance dispersion at solid electrodes and the impedance of porous electrodes in the absence and presence of electroactive species. 

The electrode layers formed using die physical loading method are usually relatively thicker (more than 10 pm in thickness), and the composite layers are composed of nanoparticles of the electrode material and the ionic polymer. These layers are both electronically and ionically conductive. The impedance for such electrodes is assumed to be similar to diat of porous electrodes. Levie (1963, 1964) was the first to develop a transmission line circuit (TLC) model of the porous electrode consisting of the electrolyte resistance and the double-layer capacitance. Subsequently, a number of authors proposed modified TLC models for the impedance of porous electrodes on the basis of Levie s model. Bisquert (2000) reviewed the various impedance models for porous electrodes. The composite electrode layers prepared by the physical loading method could be successfully represented by the impedance model for porous electrodes, as shown in Fig. 6d this model is composed of the double-layer capacitance, Cj, the Warburg diffusion capacitance, W and the electrolyte resistance, 7 (Liu et al. 2012 Cha and Porfiri 2013). 

Modeling impedance of porous electrodes, in order to permit optimal utilization of the active electrode material... 

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