Variation of the capacity characteristics of a composite material consisting of acetylene black and polytetrafluoroethylene and of its wettability with an aqueous solution under the action of anodic current

The effect exerted by treatment with cyclic anodic current in 1 M H₂SO₄ in the interval 0.0–2.0 V on electrodes made of a porous (55 vol %) composite material consisting of A-437E acetylene black and polytetrafluoroethylene (60 wt %) was studied. The cyclic volt–ampere curves were recorded in 3 M KOH and 1 M H₂SO₄ to determine the double layer capacity. The anodic treatment leads to an increase in the volume of pores filled with the electrolyte and in the electrical capacity of the electrode due both to an increase in the area of the surface wetted with the electrolyte and to the pseudocapacity caused by oxidation of the carbon black surface.     

Charging and discharging rate studies of polypyrrole films in AlCl3: 1-methyl-(3-ethyl)-imidazolium chloride molten salts and in CH3CN

The chronocoulometric charging and discharging of polypyrrole films in basic AlCl₃/1-methyl-(3-ethyl)-imidazolium chloride molten salts and CH₃CN have been investigated. Both processes follow a t^{$\text{1}\text{2}$} time dependence and are significantly faster in the molten salts. Comparison with redox polymer and porous electrode models shows that neither model is satisfactorily applicable over the entire potential region studied. The charging and discharging rates are limited by ion migration in the polymer and for potential steps in the “double layer charging” region polypyrrole behaves as a porous electrode material. In this region there is a good correlation between the charging/discharging rates and the solvent conductivity.     

The impedance of sintered plate cadmium electrodes in alkaline solution

It has been shown that the a.c. impedance of a sintered plate cadmium electrode can be related to that for a planar cadmium electrode by considering the penetration of the a.c. signal down the pores of the sinter matrix. Evenly and poorly-impregnated electrodes were studied and complex impedance plane plots obtained for regions corresponding to double layer charging, active dissolution and passivation. At high frequencies when porous behaviour was observed, the results displayed a close agreement with those predicted by the simple a.c. theory developed for a porous electrode with semi-infinite pores. Discrepancies could be attributed to the presence of uncharged Cd(OH)₂ or Cd(OH)₂ precipitate formed during discharge. The effect of charge-discharge cycling was investigated and the resulting impedance spectra interpreted in terms of changes in the wetted areas of cadmium, redistribution of active material and the progressive build up of Cd(OH)₂ within the sinter pores.     

Introducing hydrophilic carbon nanoparticles into hydrophilic sol-gel film electrodes

A hydrophilic carbon nanoparticle–sol-gel electrode with good electrical conductivity within the sol-gel matrix is prepared. Sulfonated carbon nanoparticles with high hydrophilicity and of 10–20 nm diameter (Emperor 2000) are co-deposited onto tin-doped indium oxide substrates employing a sol-gel technique. The resulting carbon nanoparticle-sol-gel composite electrodes are characterized as a function of composition and salt (KCl) additive. Scanning electron microscopy and voltammetry in the absence and in the presence of a solution redox system suggest that the composite electrode films can be made electrically conducting and highly porous to promote electron transport and transfer. The effect of the presence of hydrophilic carbon nanoparticles is explored for the following processes: (1) double layer charging, (2) diffusion and adsorption of the electrochemically reversible solution redox system 1,1′-ferrocenedimethanol, (3) electron transfer to the electrochemically irreversible redox system hydrogen peroxide, and (4) electron transfer to the redox liquid tert-butylferrocene deposited into the porous composite electrode film. The extended electrochemically active hydrophilic surface area is beneficial in particular for surface sensitive processes (1) and (3), and it provides an extended solid|organic liquid|aqueous solution boundary for reaction (4). The carbon nanoparticle–sol-gel composite electrodes are optimized to provide good electrical conductivity and to remain stable during electrochemical investigation.     

Development and experimental verification of a mathematical model of lithium ion battery

A model of the lithium ion battery is developed which takes into account intercalation and extraction of lithium ions in the active mass of negative and positive electrodes, the dependences of equilibrium electrode potentials on the concentration of intercalated lithium, the ion transfer in pores of electrodes and the separator, the kinetics of electrode reactions, and the electric double layer charging. As the active material for the negative electrode, UAMS graphite material is used. Lithium-nickel-cobalt oxide serves as the positive electrode. The porous structure of electrodes is studied by the method of standard contact porosimetry. Sufficiently high porosity values found for both electrodes (50% for anode and 27% for cathode) made it possible to consider the interface as regards the internal pore surface found from porosimetry data rather than as regards their external surface as in the previous studies. A comparison of calculated and experimental discharge curves demonstrates their closeness, which points to the correctness of the model. By the fitting procedure, the coefficients of solid-state diffusion of lithium ions and the rate constants for reactions on both electrodes are found.     

Supercapacitive Swing Adsorption of Carbon Dioxide

An electrical effect, the supercapacitive swing adsorption (SSA) effect is reported, which allows for reversible adsorption and desorption of carbon dioxide by capacitive charge and discharge of electrically conducting porous carbon materials. The SSA effect can be observed when an electrically conducting, nanoporous carbon material is brought into contact with carbon dioxide gas and an aqueous electrolyte. Charging the supercapacitor electrodes initiates the spontaneous organization of electrolyte ions into an electric double layer at the surface of each porous electrode. The presence of this double layer leads to reversible, selective uptake and release of the CO₂ as the supercapacitor is charged and discharged.     

On second-order effects in a galvanic cell: Part III. Application to modulation polarography

The simultaneous application to a galvanic cell of two sinusoidal voltages, superimposed on a linear ramp, causes a sinusoidally amplitude-modulated sine wave current to flow as a result of the non-linear behaviour of the double layer and the faradaic processes. Phase-sensitive detection of this current with two lock-in amplifiers in tandem allows a high rejection of the charging current, enabling a sensitive quantitative analysis down to concentrations well below 10^?6M.The technique also seems suitable for the study of electrode kinetics; in the absence of electroactive species it can be used in double-layer studies.     

Solid-contact pH-selective electrode using multi-walled carbon nanotubes

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) are shown to be efficient transducers of the ionic-to-electronic current. This enables the development of a new solid-contact pH-selective electrode that is based on the deposition of a 35-μm thick layer of MWCNT between the acrylic ion-selective membrane and the glassy carbon rod used as the electrical conductor. The ion-selective membrane was prepared by incorporating tridodecylamine as the ionophore, potassium tetrakis[3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]borate as the lipophilic additive in a polymerized methylmethacrylate and an n-butyl acrylate matrix. The potentiometric response shows Nernstian behaviour and a linear dynamic range between 2.89 and 9.90 pH values. The response time for this electrode was less than 10 s throughout the whole working range. The electrode shows a high selectivity towards interfering ions. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and chronopotentiometry techniques were used to characterise the electrochemical behaviour and the stability of the carbon-nanotube-based ion-selective electrodes.     

Nanoelectrode ensembles for the direct voltammetric determination of trace iodide in water

Procedures for the preparation and characterisation of ensembles of gold nanodisk electrodes (NEE) of 30 nm diameter are presented, in particular focusing on improvements in the signal/background current ratios and detection limits with respect to the electrochemical oxidation of iodide and its analytical determination in water samples. At NEEs iodide undergoes a quasi-reversible diffusion controlled oxidation with a slight shift in E _1/2 values and slightly higher peak to peak separation with respect to conventional gold disk electrodes. The double layer charging current at the NEE is significantly lower than at conventional electrodes so that the detection limit (DL) by cyclic voltammetry with NEEs in tap water is significantly lower than DL at the Au-disk millimetre-sized electrode (DL 0.3 µM at NEE vs. 4 µM for Au-disk). Finally, it is shown that NEEs in combination with square wave voltammetry can be applied for the direct determination of iodide in water samples from the lagoon of Venice, with a detection limit of 0.10 µM.     

Application of convolution procedures to chronopotentiometry

Convolution procedures are used to extract the faradaic information from chronopotentiometric data, in conditions where significant distortion by double layer charging occurs. The faradaic component of the imposed current is obtained, after measurement of the double layer capacitance, by differentiation of the initial chronopotentiogram. Convolution of this current with the function (πt)^?1/2 leads to a potential-convoluted current relationship freed from the effect of double layer charging. The kinetic characterization of the system using a combined analysis of this relationship and that relating the faradaic current to the electrode potential is discussed for the various types of reaction mechanism. The efficiency of the proposed procedure is tested on the galvanostatic reduction of fluorenone in DMF.     

Electrochemistry and capacitive charging of porous electrodes in asymmetric multicomponent electrolytes

We present porous electrode theory for the general situation of electrolytes containing mixtures of mobile ions of arbitrary valencies and diffusion coefficients (mobilities). We focus on electrodes composed of primary particles that are porous themselves. The predominantly bimodal distribution of pores in the electrode consists of the interparticle or macroporosity outside the particles through which the ions are transported (transport pathways), and the intraparticle or micropores inside the particles, where electrostatic double layers (EDLs) are formed. Both types of pores are filled with electrolyte (solvent plus ions). For the micropores we make use of a novel modified-Donnan (mD) approach valid for strongly overlapped double layers. The mD-model extends the standard Donnan approach in two ways: (1) by including a Stern layer in between the electrical charge and the ions in the micropores, and (2) by including a chemical attraction energy for the ions to go from the macropores into the micropores. This is the first paper where the mD-model is used to model ion transport and electrochemical reactions in a porous electrode. Furthermore we investigate the influence of the charge transfer kinetics on the chemical charge in the electrode, i.e., a contribution to the electrode charge of an origin different from that stemming from the Faradaic reaction itself, e.g. originating from carboxylic acid surface groups as found in activated carbon electrodes. We show that the chemical charge depends on the current via a shift in local pH, i.e. ??current-induced charge regulation.?? We present results of an example calculation where a divalent cation is reduced to a monovalent ion which electro-diffuses out of the electrode.     

Development and Evaluation of Gold 3D Cylindrical Nanoelectrode Ensembles

Gold 3D cylindrical nanoelectrode ensembles （NEEs）, 100 nm in diameter and 500 nm in length were prepared by electroless template synthesis in polycarbonate filter membranes, followed by selective controlled chemical etching. The morphology of the nanowires and cylindrical NEEs was imaged by scanning electron microscopy. The protruding nanoelectrodes were in good parallel order. EDX study showed that the nanoelectrode elements consisted of pure gold. The electrochemical evaluation of the 3D electrodes was conducted using the well known [Fe（CN）6]^3-/[Fe（CN）6]^4- couple. Cyclic voltammgrams （CV） show a very low double layer charging current and a higher ratio of signal to background current than 2D disc NEEs. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy （EIS） indicates that the 3D cylindrical NEEs effectively accelerate the charge transfer process, which is in consistent with the results of CV. The linear relationship with a slope of 0.5 between lg Ipc and lg v shows that linear diffusion is dominant on the 3D cylindrical NEEs at conventional scan rates.     

全钒液流电池铂氢微型参比电极体系的构筑与性能

铂丝电极表面上电沉积一层金属钯,用阴离子交换隔膜材料封装,制得铂氢微型参比电极,工艺简单、稳定性高. 将该微型参比电极应用于全钒储能电池性能研究,可内置于电池多孔电极内部,监测电池正负极充放电性能. 结果显示,电池容量衰减主要归因于电解液中的活性物质V(IV)的逐渐减少及V(V)的积累导致正负极活性物质不平衡.     

A simple approach for fabrication of dual-disk electrodes with a nanometer-radius electrode and a micrometer-radius electrode

We developed a new simple approach to fabricate dual-disk electrodes with a nanometer-radius electrode and a micrometer-radius electrode. First, nanometer-sized electrodes and micrometer-sized electrodes were constructed using 10-μm-radius metal wires, respectively. To fabricate the nanometer-sized electrode, after the apex of the 10-μm-radius metal wire was electrochemically etched to an ultrafine point with a nanometer-radius, the metal wire was electrochemically coated with a phenol-allyphenol copolymer film. The micrometer-sized electrode was fabricated by directly electrochemical coating the metal wire with an extremely thin phenol-allyphenol copolymer film. Then, the nanometer-radius electrode (the first electrode) and the 10-μm-radius electrode (the second electrode) were inserted into two sides of a thick-septum borosilicate theta (θ) tubing, respectively. The second electrode protruded from the top of the θ tubing. The top of the θ tubing was sealed with insulating ethyl α-cyanoacrylate. The top of the θ tubing with both electrodes was ground flat and polished successively with fine sandpaper and aluminum oxide powder until the tip of the first electrode was exposed. Since the second electrode protruded from the top of the θ tubing, its 10-μm-radius tip was naturally formed during polishing. The dual-disk electrodes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and cyclic voltammetry. The success rate for fabrication of the dual-disk electrodes is ∼80% due to double insurance from two coating layers of different polymers.     

Influence of cation on charge recombination in dye-sensitized TiO2 electrodes

The reaction of a dye cation recombining with an electron in TiO(2), in the presence of Li(+), Ca(2+), and TBA(+) cations, was studied with laser-induced transient absorption measurements. The active cations, Li(+) and Ca(2+), shorten the dye cation lifetime on sensitized TiO(2) but not ZnO electrodes. By combining the absorbance measurements of the dye cation with simultaneous measurements of the current transient, the contribution of the recombination reaction to the current is identified. Furthermore, classical porous electrode theory is used to quantify the behavior of the heterogeneous electrode, and in doing so, the processes contributing to photoinduced current are identified as Helmholtz layer charging, porous electrode charging, recombination reactions, and surface diffusion of the active cations. The rate of charge recombination is proportional to the concentration of initially deposited active cations. The effect of water on the recombination rate and the current is also observed.     

Capillary Melt Method for Micro Antimony Oxide pH Electrode

In this work, a new approach named “capillary melt method” was developed to fabricate micro antimony wires, and the wire surface was then oxidized in a nitrate melt at high temperature to obtain an antimony/antimony oxide pH electrode. Characterization results show that the oxide layer on the wire surface is porous, and consists of Sb₂O₃ crystal phase. The pH electrode, made using this method, showed good sensing performance in buffer solutions in the tested pH range of 2–12. Its EMF signal was found to have a linear relationship with pH value of the solution, with a sensitivity of 54.1 mV/pH and a fitting correlation coefficient of R²=1.00. The advantages of the electrode are long‐term stability, fast response, reproducibility and low cost.     

Reducing the Charge Carrier Transport Barrier in Functionally Layer‐Graded Electrodes

Lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) are primary energy storage devices to power consumer electronics and electric vehicles, but their capacity is dramatically decreased at ultrahigh charging/discharging rates. This mainly originates from a high Li‐ion/electron transport barrier within a traditional electrode, resulting in reaction polarization issues. To address this limitation, a functionally layer‐graded electrode was designed and fabricated to decrease the charge carrier transport barrier within the electrode. As a proof‐of‐concept, functionally layer‐graded electrodes composing of TiO₂(B) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) exhibit a remarkable capacity of 128 mAh g⁻¹ at a high charging/discharging rate of 20 C (6.7 A g⁻¹), which is much higher than that of a traditionally homogeneous electrode (74 mAh g⁻¹) with the same composition. This is evidenced by the improvement of effective Li ion diffusivity as well as electronic conductivity in the functionally layer‐graded electrodes.     

Highly conductive nanostructured C-TiO2 electrodes with enhanced electrochemical stability and double layer charge storage capacitance

The present work reports the structural and electrochemical properties of carbon-modified nanostructured TiO(2) electrodes (C-TiO(2)) prepared by anodizing titanium in a fluoride-based electrolyte followed by thermal annealing in an atmosphere of methane and hydrogen in the presence of Fe precursors. The C-TiO(2) nanostructured electrodes are highly conductive and contain more than 1 × 10(10) /cm(2) of nanowires or nanotubes to enhance their double layer charge capacitance and electrochemical stability. Electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) study shows that a C-TiO(2) electrode can replace noble metal electrodes for ultrasensitive ECL detection. Dynamic potential control experiments of redox reactions show that the C-TiO(2) electrode has a broad potential window for a redox reaction. Double layer charging capacitance of the C-TiO(2) electrode is found to be 3 orders of magnitude higher than an ideal planar electrode because of its high surface area and efficient charge collection capability from the nanowire structured surface. The effect of anodization voltage, surface treatment with Fe precursors for carbon modification, the barrier layer between the Ti substrate, and anodized layer on the double layer charging capacitance is studied. Ferrocene carboxylic acid binds covalently to the anodized Ti surface forming a self-assembled monolayer, serving as an ideal precursor layer to yield C-TiO(2) electrodes with better double layer charging performance than the other precursors.     

锂离子电池多孔电极理论的回顾与新思考

本文总结了Newman多孔电极理论的基本内容,提出若干改进思路. 提出基于离子-空穴耦合传输机制描述浓电解质中的离子输运过程,在此基础上引入离子-电子耦合转移反应的思想处理电极材料中的离子传输问题,并通过计算嵌锂材料的离子扩散系数验证其合理性. 总结了描述多孔电极多尺度结构的相关理论和技术,表明均质化方法和基于结构重建的介观模拟方法均能给出比较合理的有效输运参数,从而提高多孔电极理论模拟结果的准确性.     

Impedance measurements for determination of pore texture of a carbon membrane

The pore texture of a carbon membrane was determined by impedance measurements carried out over a wide frequency range. The impedance obtained could be characterised by a resistance Ω and a double layer capacitance Cn. Ω is the third of electrolyte resistance in pores and Cn is the double layer capacitance corresponding to the developed pore surface. Membrane samples of different length but with the same thickness were studied. As expected, it was shown that the Cn value is proportional to the weight of the membrane whereas the Ω value is inversely proportional. Cn value allowed us to evaluate the specific area of the porous membrane from the value of the double layer capacitance per unit area determined for a plain carbon electrode. Moreover, impedance diagrams obtained were found to be very similar to those of cylindrical pore even though the pore texture is very intricate. Thus, impedance measurements can be applied to porous electrodes of more intricate pore texture and evaluate the radius, depth and pore number of its equivalent cylindrical pore electrode.