A Procedure for Transforming Impedance Spectra for the Determination of Mechanism of Electrochemical Reactions

Transformation of impedance spectra into relaxation time spectra (RTS) is used for determining contributions of individual processes of the oxygen electroreduction reaction (OER) to the polarization resistance of the electrochemical cell. The transformation technique involves the solution of the convolution equation found with the aid of a modified Van Cittert iteration algorithm checked on model impedance spectra. The technique, when used to analyze impedance spectra of electrochemical cells air|Pt|YSZ|YSZ + Pt|air, shows that the conversion of a globular structure of the YSZ + Pt cermet layer to a columnar one is accompanied by a change of peak amplitudes in RTS. The revealed RTS dynamics when heated to 750°C is compared with peculiarities of individual processes in OER.