Transient studies of electrode kinetics

An example of this latter application is that of Pletcher and his coworkers [29] into the deposition of lithium in ether solvents. This system is of particular interest in view of its relevance to lithium battery studies. At conventional electrodes, it is difficult to study transient behaviour because the electrode solution is so resistive but, as shown, in Fig. 16 studies at microelectrodes are very effective. This figure shows a series of current-time transients for the deposition of lithium on 40 /zm radius copper disc electrodes and no problems were encountered from either iRu drop or charging currents. Some might question the relevance of microelectrode studies at very low currents to technological systems such as batteries but it must be remembered that, whilst the currents are small, the current densities involved are, in fact, quite large. 

We have seen in this section how microelectrodes can be used in a variety of ways to study both coupled homogeneous chemical reactions and heterogeneous electron transfers. We have also seen one example of a study of metal deposition. The development of microelectrodes has made possible 

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