Solid state electrochemistry technique, electrochemical

Royce W. Murray is Kenan Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his B.S. from Birmingham Southern College in 1957 and his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1960. His research areas are analytical chemistry and materials science with specialized interests in electrochemical techniques and reactions, chemically derivatized surfaces in electrochemistry and analytical chemistry, electrocatalysis, polymer films and membranes, solid state electrochemistry and transport phenomena, and molecular electronics. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. 

This volume contains four chapters. The topics covered are solid state electrochemistry devices and techniques nanoporous carbon and its electrochemical application to electrode materials for supercapacitors the analysis of variance and covariance in electrochemical science and engineering and the last chapter presents the use of graphs in electrochemical reaction networks. 

These examples and the general subjects mentioned above illustrate that ion conduction and the electrochemical properties of solids are particularly relevant in solid state ionics. Hence, the scope of this area considerably overlaps with the field of solid state electrochemistry, and the themes treated, for example, in textbooks on solid state electrochemistry [27-31] and books or journals on solid state ionics [1, 32] are very similar indeed. Regrettably, for many years solid state electrochemistry/solid state ionics on the one hand, and liquid electrochemistry on the other, developed separately. Although developments in the area of polymer electrolytes or the use of experimental techniques such as impedance spectroscopy have provided links between the two fields, researchers in both solid and liquid electrochemistry are frequently not acquainted with the research activities of the sister discipline. Similarities and differences between (inorganic) solid state electrochemistry and liquid electrochemistry are therefore emphasized in this review. In Sec. 2, for example, several aspects (non-stoichiometry, mixed ionic and electronic conduction, internal interfaces) are discussed that lead to an extraordinary complexity of electrolytes in solid state electrochemistry. 

Refs. [i] Broadhead /, Kuo HC (1994) Electrochemical principles and reactions. In Linden D (ed) Handbook of batteries, 2"d edn. McGraw-Hill, New York, p 2.1, Appendix A, p A 7 Gellings PJ, Bouwmeester HJM (eds) (1997) Hie CRC handbook of solid state electrochemistry. CRC Press, p 450 [ii] Zoltan N (1990) DC relaxation techniques for the investigation of fast electrode reactions. In Bockris JO M, Conway BE, White RE (eds) Modern aspects of electrochemistry, vol. 21. Plenum Press, New York, p 244... 

The present contribution does not include solid state techniques to measure electrochemical parameters, nor does it consider applications of solid state electrochemistry. Such topics will be dealt with in a second part which will appear separately.1... 

The phenomenon of EPOC or NEMCA effect was first reported in solid electrolyte systems [23, 195-205], but several NEMCA studies already exist using aqueous electrolyte systems [23, 30, 31,145] or Nafion membranes [23]. The EPOC phenomenon leads to apparent Faradaic efficiencies, A, well in excess of 100% (values up to 105 have been measured in solid-state electrochemistry and up to 102 in aqueous electrochemistry). This is due to the fact that, as shown by a variety of surface science and electrochemical techniques [23, 40, 195-198, 206-209], the NEMCA effect is due to electrocatalytic (Faradaic) introduction of promoting species onto catalyst-electrode surfaces [23, 196], each of these promoting species being able to catalyze numerous (A) catalytic turnovers. 

The opening chapter of this Handbook highlights the characteristic features of solid-state electrochemistry, including basic phenomena, measurement techniques, and key apphcations. Materials research strategies that are based on electrochemical insight and the potential of nanostructuring are detailed in particular. Fundamental relationships between the decisive thermodynamic and kinetic parameters governing electrochemical processes are also briefly discussed. 

The arm of this Handbook is to combine the fundamental information and to provide a brief overview of recent advances in solid-state electrochemistry, with a primary emphasis on methodological aspects, novel materials, factors governing the performance of electrochemical cells, and their practical applications. The main focus is, therefore, centered on specialists working in this scientific field and in closely related areas, except for a number of chapters which present also the basic formulae and relevant definitions for those readers who are less familiar with theory and research methods in solid-state electrochemistry. Since it has been impossible to cover in total the rich diversity of electrochemical phenomena, techniques and appliances, priority has been given to recent developments and research trends. Those readers seeking more detailed information on specific aspects and applications are addressed to the list of reference material below, which includes both interdisciplinary and specialized books [8-20]. 

The incremental capacity of an insertion electrode material used in ambient temperature batteries can be estimated from voltage spectroscopy measurements which can help to the determination of phase diagram of the insertion compotmd [1], In the first section, we examine the various aspects of electrochemical lithium insertion into a number of electrode materials. The experimental techniques of solid-state electrochemistry are presented in the second section. Voltage spectroscopy and phase diagram during Li intercalation into cathode materials are investigated. Finally, the experimental determination of the diffusion coefficient of ions in solid materials is investigated. 

As in solution phase electrochemistry, selection of solvent and supporting electrolytes, electrode material, and method of electrode modification, electrochemical technique, parameters and data treatment, is required. In general, long-time voltam-metric experiments will be preferred because solid state electrochemical processes involve diffusion and surface reactions whose typical rates are lower than those involved in solution phase electrochemistry. 

While many of the standard electroanalytical techniques utilized with metal electrodes can be employed to characterize the semiconductor-electrolyte interface, one must be careful not to interpret the semiconductor response in terms of the standard diagnostics employed with metal electrodes. Fundamental to our understanding of the metal-electrolyte interface is the assumption that all potential applied to the back side of a metal electrode will appear at the metal electrode surface. That is, in the case of a metal electrode, a potential drop only appears on the solution side of the interface (i.e., via the electrode double layer and the bulk electrolyte resistance). This is not the case when a semiconductor is employed. If the semiconductor responds in an ideal manner, the potential applied to the back side of the electrode will be dropped across the internal electrode-electrolyte interface. This has two implications (1) the potential applied to a semiconducting electrode does not control the electrochemistry, and (2) in most cases there exists a built-in barrier to charge transfer at the semiconductor-electrolyte interface, so that, electrochemical reversible behavior can never exist. In order to understand the radically different response of a semiconductor to an applied external potential, one must explore the solid-state band structure of the semiconductor. This topic is treated at an introductory level in References 1 and 2. A more complete discussion can be found in References 3, 4, 5, and 6, along with a detailed review of the photoelectrochemical response of a wide variety of inorganic semiconducting materials. 

Conventional two-electrode dc measurements on ceramics only yield conductivities that are averaged over contributions of bulk, grain boundaries and electrodes. Experimental techniques are therefore required to split the total sample resistance Rtot into its individual contributions. Four-point dc measurements using different electrodes for current supply and voltage measurement can, for example, be applied to avoid the influence of electrode resistances. In 1969 Bauerle [197] showed that impedance spectroscopy (i.e. frequency-dependent ac resistance measurements) facilitates a differentiation between bulk, grain boundary and electrode resistances in doped ZrC>2 samples. Since that time, this technique has become common in the field of solid state ionics and today it is probably the most important tool for investigating electrical transport in and electrochemical properties of ionic solids. Impedance spectroscopy is also widely used in liquid electrochemistry and reviews on this technique be found in Refs. [198 201], In this section, just some basic aspects of impedance spectroscopic studies in solid state ionics are discussed. 

Although the first reports of this approach involved studies with metal alloys [3] and minerals [4], within a few years the technique has been extended to a wide variety of research areas. As these findings have been summarized in several reviews [5-8] and also in a monograph [9], attention will be focused here on more recent developments, notably on the mechanical immobilization of particles on electrodes. Today, a huge amount of information is available for electrochemical systems comprising particles enclosed in polymer films or other matrices (see Refs [10-16]). Originally, the main aim of such particle enclosure was to achieve specific electrode properties (e.g., functionalized carbon/polymer materials as electrocatalysts [17, 18] solid-state, dye-sensitized solar cells [19]), rather than to study the electrochemistry of the particles. This situation arose mainly because the preparation of these composites was too cumbersome for assessing the particles properties. The techniques also suffered from interference caused by the other phases that constituted the electrode. 

Exploring various phenomena at metal/solution interfaces relates directly to heterogeneous catalysis and its applications to fuel cell catalysis. By the late 1980s, electrochemical nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (EC-NMR) was introduced as a new technique for electrochemical smface science. (See also recent reviews and some representative references covering NMR efforts in gas phase surface science. ) It has been demonstrated that electrochemical nuclear magnetic resonance (EC-NMR) is a local surface and bulk nanoparticle probe that combines solid-state, or frequently metal NMR with electrochemistry. Experiments can be performed either under direct in situ potentiostatic control, or with samples prepared in a separate electrochemical cell, where the potential is both known and constant. Among several virtues, EC-NMR provides an electron-density level description of electrochemical interfaces based on the Eermi level local densities of states (Ef-LDOS). Work to date has been predominantly conducted with C and PtNMR, since these nuclei... 

Almost every other form of spectroscopy has been combined with electrochemistry including the Mossbauer and Raman techniques. In the situation where sohds are adhered to electrode surfaces, almost every conceivable surface science techniques such as X-ray diffraction, surface analysis, and scanning microscopy have been coupled with electrochemistry to provide a powerful adjunct to solid state electrochemical investigations. ... 

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