Polarization mass transport

The frequency-dependent spectroscopic capabilities of SPFM are ideally suited for studies of ion solvation and mobility on surfaces. This is because the characteristic time of processes involving ionic motion in liquids ranges from seconds (or more) to fractions of a millisecond. Ions at the surface of materials are natural nucleation sites for adsorbed water. Solvation increases ionic mobility, and this is reflected in their response to the electric field around the tip of the SPFM. The schematic drawing in Figure 29 illustrates the situation in which positive ions accumulate under a negatively biased tip. If the polarity is reversed, the positive ions will diffuse away while negative ions will accumulate under the tip. Mass transport of ions takes place over distances of a few tip radii or a few times the tip-surface distance. 

For isolating the overpotential of the working electrode, it is common practice to admit hydrogen to the counter-electrode (the anode in a PEMFC the cathode in a direct methanol fuel cell, DMFC) and create a so-called dynamic reference electrode. Furthermore, the overpotential comprises losses associated with sluggish electrochemical kinetics, as well as a concentration polarization related to hindered mass transport ... 

In this chapter, we describe some of the more widely used and successful kinetic techniques involving controlled hydrodynamics. We briefly discuss the nature of mass transport associated with each method, and assess the attributes and drawbacks. While the application of hydrodynamic methods to liquid liquid interfaces has largely involved the study of spontaneous processes, several of these methods can be used to investigate electrochemical processes at polarized ITIES we consider these applications when appropriate. We aim to provide an historical overview of the field, but since some of the older techniques have been reviewed extensively [2,3,13], we emphasize the most recent developments and applications. 

Concentration Polarization The rate of mass transport to an electrode surface in many cases can be described by Pick s first law of diffusion ... 

As the redox reactions proceed, the availability of the active species at the electrode/electrolyte interface changes. Concentration polarization arises from limited mass transport capabilities, for example, limited diffusion of active species to and from the electrode surface to replace the reacted material to sustain the reaction. Diffusion limitations are relatively slow, and the buildup and decay take >10 s to appear. For limited diffusion the electrolyte solution, the concentration polarization, can be expressed as... 

The last part of the polarization curve is dominated by mass-transfer limitations (i.e., concentration overpotential). These limitations arise from conditions wherein the necessary reactants (products) cannot reach (leave) the electrocatalytic site. Thus, for fuel cells, these limitations arise either from diffusive resistances that do not allow hydrogen and oxygen to reach the sites or from conductive resistances that do not allow protons or electrons to reach or leave the sites. For general models, a limiting current density can be used to describe the mass-transport limitations. For this review, the limiting current density is defined as the current density at which a reactant concentration becomes zero at the diffusion medium/catalyst layer interface. 

Springer and Gottesfeld, Perry et al., and Eikerling and Kornyshev presented several analytical and numerical solutions for the cathode catalyst layer under various conditions. Perry et al. studied the effects of mass-transport limitations on the polarization characteristics of a reaction obeying... 

A major fallacy is made when observations obeying a known physical law are subjected to trend-oriented tests, but without allowing for a specific behaviour predicted by the law in certain sub-domains of the observation set. This can be seen in Table 11 where a partial set of classical cathode polarization data has been reconstructed from a current versus total polarization graph [28], If all data pairs were equally treated, rank distribution analysis would lead to an erroneous conclusion, inasmuch as the (admittedly short) limiting-current plateau for cupric ion discharge, albeit included in the data, would be ignored. Along this plateau, the independence of current from polarization potential follows directly from the theory of natural convection at a flat plate, with ample empirical support from electrochemical mass transport experiments. 

Supercritical water also exhibits a very strong solvent power toward most chemical species. This dramatically increased solvating power is due to the sharp increase of the fluid density as well as the polar nature of the fluid. Also, since many organics are completely miscible in supercritical water, the problem of mass transport... 

The oxygen electrode suffers from considerable polarization losses on discharge, largely due to mass transport limitations. Metal-air cells have... 

Although the kinetic variable in electrode reactions in the current density, extensive use of the overpotential concept has been made in the electrochemical literature to indicate the departure from equilibrium [7]. Depending on the particular rate-determining process, in the overall electrode kinetics ohmic, charge transfer, reaction, concentration or mass transport, and crystallization overpotentials are described in the literature. Vetter [7] distinguished the concept of overpotential from that of polarization in the case of mixed potentials when the zero current condition does not correspond to an equilibrium potential as will be discussed in Sect. 8. 

In deriving eqn. (80), limitations due to mass transport at the interface were not considered. Strictly speaking, this is not realistic and as the reaction rate increases with overpotential in each direction a variation of the concentrations of reactant and product at the surface operates and concentration polarization becomes more important. Each exponential expression in eqn. (80) must be multiplied by the ratio of surface to bulk concentrations, ci s/ci b. The effect of mass transfer in electrode kinetics has been discussed in Sect. 2.4. 

The electrode polarization curve characteristics exhibited above are typical of those seen in many fuel cell electrodes. Thus a potential application of the ADM approximate solutions is determining the key electrochemical and mass transport parameters. 

An aim of the model is to determine the influence of the various mass transport parameters and show how they influence the polarization behavior of three-dimensional electrodes. In the model we have adopted relatively simple electrode kinetics, i.e., Tafel type, The approach can also be applied to more complicated electrode kinetics which exhibit non-linear dependency of reaction rate (current density) on reactant concentration. 

When polarization occurs at an electrode with nonideal geometry (e.g., when the current is limited by rate of electron transfer or by mass transport), there is a gradient in potential in the solution adjacement to the electrode, and associated with this is a tangential as well as normal component of the current at the electrode surface.13 This causes the equipotential lines to intersect the electrode and the current lines to enter the electrode at angles other than 90°. (In the absence of polarization, or in a polarized electrode with ideal geometiy, the equipotential lines would be parallel to the electrode surface, and the current lines would intersect the electrode at an angle of 90°.)... 

Concentration polarization, which is a result of mass transport limitations throughout the cell function. 

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