Warburg diffusion impedance

The impedance with its components R and C is known as the Warburg diffusion impedance, and constant as the Warburg constant. In the equivalent circuits for electrochemical reactions, a Warburg impedance is represented by the symbol -W- as shown in the lower part of Fig. 12.15b. 

The EIS response depends on the flhn thickness and morphology, applied potential, and, obviously, the nature of the components of the hybrid system. The hydro-phobic nature of the polymer, the level of doping within the film, and the size of ions in contact with the polymer surface are factors to be considered for studying the response of such materials. In short, the kinetics of the overall charge transfer process should take into account (1) electron hopping between adjacent redox sites (Andrieux et al., 1986) usually described in terms of a Warburg diffusion impedance element (Nieto and Tucceri, 1996) and (2) double-layer charging at the metal-flhn interface, represented in terms of a double-layer capacitance element. 

The so-called ladder equivalent circuit shown in Figure 27.13 is characteristic of many ACs. It represents a set of several R-C parallel circuits and also Warburg diffusion impedance. Herewith, apart from the proper distributed line related to a porous structure of the studied object, one or several circuits in the ladder characterize parallel faradaic redox reactions of surface groups on the electrode. It was shown theoretically that phase angle (p = 45° independent of frequency co is observed... 

Determination of Parameters from Randles Circuit. Electrochemical three-electrode impedance spectra taken on electrochromic materials can very often be fitted to the Randles equivalent circuit (Randles [1947]) displayed in Figure 4.3.17. In this circuit R /denotes the high frequency resistance of the electrolyte, Ra is the charge-transfer resistance associated with the ion injection from the electrolyte into the electrochromic film and Zt, is a Warburg diffusion impedance of either semi-infinite, or finite-length type (Ho et al. [1980]). The CPEdi is a constant phase element describing the distributed capacitance of the electrochemical double layer between the electrolyte and the film having an impedance that can be expressed as... 

The impedance of CPE is described according to eq. 3 (Zoltowski 1998). When a is close to 0, the CPE describes a resistance, close to -1 it describes an inductance, close to 1 it describes a capacity and finally, for the value of 0.5, the result is equivalent to the Warburg diffusion impedance. 

Diffusion and charge-transfer kinetics are usually coupled. A typical electrochemical (or "Faradaic") reaction is composed of both mass-transport processes of charged species to the electrode surface and their redox discharge at the interface. The Faradaic impedance can be represented by a series combination of Warburg diffusion impedance and charge-transfer resistance ... 

Flash Rusting (Bulk Paint and "Wet" Film Studies). The moderate conductivity (50-100 ohm-cm) of the water borne paint formulations allowed both dc potentiodynamic and ac impedance studies of mild steel in the bulk paints to be measured. (Table I). AC impedance measurements at the potentiostatically controlled corrosion potentials indicated depressed semi-circles with a Warburg diffusion low frequency tail in the Nyquist plots (Figure 2). These measurements at 10, 30 and 60 minute exposure times, showed the presence of a reaction involving both charge transfer and mass transfer controlling processes. The charge transfer impedance 0 was readily obtained from extrapolation of the semi-circle to the real axis at low frequencies. The transfer impedance increased with exposure time in all cases. 

Impedance measurements taken on specimens after 96 hours exposure to salt spray show a combination of R-C and Warburg diffusion behavior. This Is in agreement with the observation elsewhere (9,11). 

The Warburg impedance has been substituted by ZD, the diffusion impedance ... 

EIS data analysis is commonly carried out by fitting it to an equivalent electric circuit model. An equivalent circuit model is a combination of resistances, capacitances, and/or inductances, as well as a few specialized electrochemical elements (such as Warburg diffusion elements and constant phase elements), which produces the same response as the electrochemical system does when the same excitation signal is imposed. Equivalent circuit models can be partially or completely empirical. In the model, each circuit component comes from a physical process in the electrochemical cell and has a characteristic impedance behaviour. The shape of the model s impedance spectrum is controlled by the style of electrical elements in the model and the interconnections between them (series or parallel combinations). The size of each feature in the spectrum is controlled by the circuit elements parameters. 

However, although powerful numerical analysis software, e.g., Zview, is available to fit the spectra and give the best values for equivalent circuit parameters, analysis of the impedance data can still be troublesome, because specialized electrochemical processes such as Warburg diffusion or adsorption also contribute to the impedance, further complicating the situation. To set up a suitable model, one requires a basic knowledge of the cell being studied and a fundamental understanding of the behaviour of cell elements. 

The Warburg impedance is only valid if the diffusion layer has an infinite thickness. If the diffusion layer is bounded, the impedance at lower frequencies no longer obeys Equation 4.32. Instead, the bounded Warburg element (BW) should be used to replace the Warburg. The impedance of the series connection between the resistance and the BW, shown in Figure 4.9a, can be calculated by adding their impedances ... 

Process models Nemst dielectrics (1894) Warburg diffusion (1901) Finkelstein Solid film (1902) Randles double layer and diffusion impedance (1947) Gerischer two heterogeneous steps with adsorbed intermediate (1955) De Levie porous electrodes (1967) Schuhmann homogeneous reactions and diffusion (1964) Gabrielli generalized impedance (1977) Isaacs LEIS (1992)... 

As an exercise, the reader can verify that equation (2.73) satisfies both real and imaginary parts of equation (2.70). This development represents the starting point for both the Warburg impedance associated with diffusion in a stationary medium of infinite depth and the diffusion impedance associated with a stationary medium of finite depth. 

At first glance, it may not be obvious that such an approach should work. It is well known, for example, that the impedance spectrum associated with an electrochemical reaction limited by the rate of diffusion through a stagnant layer (either the Warburg or the finite-layer diffusion impedance) can be approximated by an infinite number of RC circuits in series (the Voigt model). In theory, then, a measurement model based on the Voigt circuit should require an infinite number of parameters to adequately describe the impedance response of any electrochemical system influenced by mass transfer. 

Nernst applied the electrical bridge invented by Wheatstone to the measurement of the dielectric constants for aqueous electrolytes and different organic fluids. Nemst s approach was soon employed by others for measurement of dielectric properties and the resistance of galvanic cells. Finkelstein applied the technique to the analysis of the dielectric response of oxides. Warburg developed expressions for the impedance response associated with the laws of diffusion, developed almost 50 years earlier by Fick, and introduced the electrical circuit analogue for electrolytic systems in which the capacitance and resistance were functions of frequency. The concept of diffusion impedance was applied by Kruger to the capacitive response of mercury electrodes. ... 

Cadmium atomic layer electrodeposition above reversible Cd2+/Cd potential (underpotential deposition, upd) on bulk tellurium and Te atomic layer predeposited on gold has been characterised with potentiodynamic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (PDEIS) by variations, with the electrode potential E, of double layer pseudocapacitance Q,u, charge transfer resistance Rrt and Warburg coefficient Aw of diffusion impedance. 

Figure 10a shows the Nyquist plot for a situation when diffusion impedance is much larger compared to the charge transfer resistance. The 45° Warburg line dominates the... 

The diffusion impedance at semiconductor electrodes has been considered recently [105]. This author described the applicability of AC impedance spectroscopy for the study of electron capture and hole injection processes at n-CaAs-H20/C2H50H-methyl viologen, p-InP-aq. KOH-Fe(CN)6l -GaAs-H2S04-Ce +, and -InP-aq. KOH-Fe(CN)6 interfaces. In the case of electron capture processes, a Randles-like equivalent circuit was found to be applicable [105]. On the other hand, no Warburg component was present in the hole injection case when the reverse... 

Because of the assumption of semiinfinite diffusion made by Warburg for the derivation of the diffusion impedance, it predicts that the impedance diverges from the real axis at low frequencies, that is, according to the above analysis, the dc-impedance of the electrochemical cell would be infinitely large. It can be shown that the Warburg impedance is analogous to a semi-infinite transmission line composed of capacitors and resistors (Fig. 8) [3]. However, in many practical cases, a finite diffusion layer thickness has to be taken into consideration. The first case to be considered is that of enforced or natural convection in an... 

Warburg s impedance When infinite transient diffusion is characterized by AC techniques, such as impedance spectroscopy in electrochemistry, the electrical complex impedance measured by imposing a periodic signal with a constant angular frequency is called Warburg impedance. 

The diffusion impedance of a bulk electrolyte can be described by a finite length Warburg impedance with transmissive boundary (Eq. (7)). A transmissive boundary is appropriate because an ion produced at the cathode is consumed at the anode and vice versa during battery electrochemical processes. A more precise treatment, using... 

The kinetic impedance Zj represents the faradaie impedance in the absence of a concentration overpotential. In the simplest case, the kinetie impedance corresponds to the transfer resistance Rt, but in more complicated situations it may include several circuit elements. The diffusion impedance Z describes the contribution of the concentration overpotential to the faradaic impedance and therefore depends on the transport phenomena in solution. In the absence of convection, it is referred to as the Warburg impedance and, in the opposite case, as the Nernst impedance Z. ... 

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